The politicization of all of life was the announced goal of various totalitarian regimes in the early twentieth century. Benito Mussolini, the originator of the term “Fascism,” thus asserted that for the Fascist: “Everything is in the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less has value outside the State. In this sense fascism is totalitarian…” [1]
In recent days, for a variety of reasons, it appears to me that for far too many Christians in North America politics has also become everything, “their meat and drink,” as the Baptist theologian Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) notes below. To be sure, we live in tumultuous times when it seems our way of life hangs in the balance and Christians must speak up in the public square. Fuller lived in a similar time: a time of revolutions (think, America, French, Haitian, and Irish), political turmoil, and war. But I am firmly convinced that his words below bespeak a better way than allowing ourselves and churches be consumed by politics.
These words come from his The Backslider, a an extremely popular work that underwent numerous editions in the 19th century:
There is another species of departure from God which it becomes me to notice, as many in the present age have fallen sacrifices to it; that is, taking an eager and deep interest in political disputes. The state of things in the world has of late been such as to attract the attention and employ the conversation of all classes of people. As success has attended each of the contending parties, the minds of men, according to their views and attachments, have been affected. Some with fear and dismay, lest their party interests should be ruined; others with the most sanguine hopes, as if the world were shortly to be emancipated, war abolished, and all degrees of men rendered happy. This is one of those strong winds of temptation that occasionally arise in the troubled ocean of this world, against which those who are bound to a better had need to be on their guard. The flattering objects held out by revolutionists were so congenial with the wishes of humanity, and their pretenses to disinterested philanthropy so fair, that many religious people for a time, forgot their own principles.
While gazing on the splendid spectacle, it did not occur to them that the wicked, whatever name they assumed, would do wickedly. By observing the progress of things, however, they have been convinced that all hopes of the state of mankind being essentially ameliorated by any means short of the prevalence of the gospel, are visionary, and have accordingly turned their attention to better things. But some have gone greater lengths. Their whole heart has been engaged in this pursuit. It has been their meat and their drink and, this being the case, it is not surprising that they have become indifferent to religion, for these things cannot consist with each other. It is not only contrary to the whole tenor of the New Testament, but tends in its own nature to eat up true religion.
If any worldly matter, however lawful in itself, engages our attention inordinately, it becomes a snare, and more so in matters that do not come within the line of our immediate duty. But if in attending to it we are obliged to neglect what manifestly is our duty, and to overleap the boundaries of God’s holy Word, let us look to it. Beyond those boundaries is a pit in which, there is reason to fear, great numbers have been lost. There were many in the early ages of Christianity who despised government and were not afraid to speak evil of dignities but were they good men?[2] Far from it. They were professors of Christianity, however, for they are said to have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ,[3] yea, and what is more, they had attained the character of Christian teachers. But of what description? False teachers, who privately brought in damnable heresies, denying the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction whose ways, though followed by many, were harmful, occasioning the way of truth to be evil spoken of.[4] To copy the examples of such men is no light matter. When a man’s thoughts and affections are filled with such things as these, the Scriptures become a kind of dead letter, while the speeches and writings of politicians are the lively oracles. Spiritual conversation is unheard, or if introduced by others, considered as a flat and uninteresting topic. And leisure hours, whether sitting in the house or walking by the way, instead of being employed in talking and meditating on divine subjects, are engrossed by things which do not profit. Such are the rocks amongst which many have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.
…
If a Christian be under the necessity of siding with a party, undoubtedly, he ought to act in favour of that which appears to him the best. However, even in this case it is not becoming him to enter with eagerness into their disputes. Let worldly men who thirst after preferment busy themselves in a contested election—they have their reward. Let Christians, if called to appear, discharge their duty and retire from the tumultuous scene.
By entering deeply into the party contentions of the nation, religious people on both sides will be charged in their turn with disloyalty—and it may be not always without a cause. Fifty years ago, that party was out of power which at present is in power. At that time, the charge of disloyalty was directed against them, and they were then denominated patriots. It is possible that many who now seem to abhor a spirit of disaffection towards administrative government, would be themselves not the best affected were the other side to recover its authority. But if we enter into the spirit of the gospel, though we may have our preferences of men and measures, we shall bear goodwill to all, and whoever be at the head of affairs, shall reverence the powers that be. Whatever be our private opinion of the men, we shall respect and honour the rulers. That loyalty which operates only with the prevalence of a party, whichever it be, is greatly removed from the loyalty enjoined by the Scriptures.[5]
[1] Cited David Nicholls, Deity and Domination: Images of God and the State in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London; New York: Routledge, 1989), 90.
[2] Cf. 2 Peter 2:10.
[3] Cf. 2 Peter 2:20.
[4] See 2 Peter 2.
[5] From Andrew Fuller, The Backslider: or, An enquiry Into the Nature, Symptoms, and Effects of Religious Declension, with the Means of Recovery (Clipstone: J. W. Morris, 1801), 25–34, passim.
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