“Left,” “Right,” and the Source of Political Conflict: Some Thoughts on Politics and the Believer by One Christian Scholar

Facebook Drama

I’ve allowed my Facebook page to go bananas seeking “friendship” with thousands of people claiming Christ. Where once I had a couple hundred who all agreed by and large with my perspectives on things, it now finds flat earthers and science geeks, leftists and extreme conservatives, Haters of the Jewish people and Israel devotees, Catholics and Evangelicals and Pentecostals and charismatics. I have a host of Trump haters and MAGA Trump enthusiasts. And it goes without typing… everything in between them all.

If my page is a Whitmire’s Sampler of what is commonly going on in Churches, with fruits and nuts as well as chocolate, caramel, and nougat, we are in a sorry state. In the most data available era of man, emotional commitments still reign supreme, and Scripture is bent indecently to every purpose.

I Too Am a Karamazov

So, as a teacher with a set of my own commitments that I believe are rooted in a proper historical grammatical literary interpretive method that seeks to establish a biblical theology tethered to the original intent of each biblical author as they wrote inspired messages in an ancient context that I need to understand and apply righteously to my own context… feel free to take a breather for a second… I have sought to get to the source of the chaos ruling amid those professing to be the church. Why do so many look at the exact same data and come to radically different conclusions about its meaning.

Complexity Needs Principles

There is such a thing as too much information. If you were a living quantum computer you might have the ability to keep track of enough data to make near-perfectly informed decisions, but you aren’t… and AI cannot be trusted to make human choices for the simple reason that it is not a person and is not driven by or constrained by human need, human fear, or human desires… or almost anything else human… awe, love, ambition, etc.

Real people either depend on a body of principles for making decisions in the face of a radically complex world, or they exist on a nearly animal level of impulses… the stuff that AI can only observe as an outsider to the human experience.

Ten of these Things is Just Like the Others

I am not the first to notice, but there does appear to be a basic set of answers to worldview questions that tend to shape the principles of interpretation of data into decision and opinion. I first began to suspect such a thing while still in high school. It struck me that if someone told me just two or three things about a person I’d never met, I had “an uncanny ability,” to tell a dozen more true things about them and their beliefs about life and society.

The larger conflict of worldviews between those who see world struggles as rooted in the heart of man and those who see them rooted in failed systems alone will not be considered here. Those salivating for power and willing to tell any lie and cause the deaths of any number to get it are part of a completely different comparative discussion. Here, I aim to consider radical differences between professing believers.

Indeed, I was recently attacked verbally by a fellow minister for “driving people away from the kingdom of God” because I defended I.C.E. in their designs to remove illegal aliens from our nation and in I.C.E.’s defense of themselves from the violent onslaught of those opposing their mission. This minister asked (I paraphrase) how I could call myself a Christian and hold such opinions. My answer cut to the core of what divided us politically as committed followers of Christ.

A Stable Beginning

I begin with the demand for law & order and a firm governmental hand to preserve it. This other minister begins with myopic tender feelings of pity for the marginal and with resentment against the authoritative structures that make them feel bad. This minister would say, “marginalized,” believing that marginal people are victims of society in a world comprised of oppressors and oppressed.

I begin with the obligation of individuals to be responsible law-abiding adults… or to be growing into one… and this minister believes that those oppressed by systems of culture or morals or law need to be pitied and given special allowances to react to that pain—what I hold to be toxic empathy. This minister also thinks that “the downtrodden” need to be perpetually cared for like children… that expecting them to be self-sufficient responsible adults is unfeeling and unnecessary… and that I needed to “check my privilege.”

Scripture Through a Looking Glass

I believe that the whole of Scripture needs careful handling in terms of proper interpretation and application in a complex world where basic principles, proven through the ages of man, hold sway. But this minister believes that the “love” and “grace” and “mercy” of Christ wipes away any real concern for the rest of Scripture, which must be made to diminish in force before the “law of love.” This minister’s reply is always the same when considering some command for morals or societal order… “Yes, but…”

When I once made reference to the need to do good and not just feel good about what you do, another minister, of like mind to this first, said to me, “It’s my duty to love” and “let God worry about the consequences.” Personally, I have a difficult time believing that truly godly action causes easily-anticipatable devastation in society, but, hey! That ‘s just me.

I’m Not Political, You’re Political

In this vein, I’ve noticed that left leaning ministers think themselves loving… regardless of the real-world consequences of their actions, which they don’t usually bother to track… and that they think conservative leaning ministers are TOO POLITICAL. Conservative ministers, however, tend to recognize that politics are just thoughts about the running of society, and that the Scriptures have much to say about this arena of life. i.e. Biblical religion is political in terms of seeking to govern and shape societal morals and ethics and behaviors. The conservative minister knows that the left leaning minister is being political when the left-leaning minister thinks he or she is simply being loving.

Reason Alone Won’t Get You There

This divide is hard to overcome. Each side is committed to a particular way of seeing reality and, thus, of tracing cause and effect in societal outcomes.

My side starts with law & order and believes that outcomes are born from the tension between human hearts in rebellion against divine order and the attempts by many to bring order to that chaos.

The other side starts with “pity” and “empathy” and seeks to put themselves into the mix as guardians to protect the marginal from the oppressions of those seeking law & order… sure that love will win in the end… unconcerned with the damage that the indolent and wicked do to the rest of society. They might say they care, but they rarely care enough to defend what Paul describes in terms of “the sword” in Romans 13, and what Hebrews 12 celebrates as the discipline of the Lord.

~Andrew D. Sargent, PhD

I call the image for this post, Left, Right, & Real Consequences.