EXPLOREFAITH:
Can someone be non-political and still be a Christian? In other
words, does our calling as Christians necessitate our being
engaged in
society as activists for social justice and political reform?
MARCUS
BORG:
Obviously, somebody can be a Christian without being overtly
political. I assume that there are, for example,
cloistered people in religious orders who never vote and who
aren’t political in any direct sense of the word. They
might be political in their prayers, but they are certainly not
political in any way we would normally think of it. And so, yes,
it’s
completely possible to be non-political and be a Christian.
However,
I would argue that a
mature Christian faith, for somebody living in society,
does
involve
a political
dimension. I think the political passion of
the Bible is at least half of the Biblical witness. So I would
say that, minimally,
mature Christianity should affect the way you vote. I’m
not just saying that a mature Christian should vote. I’m
really saying it should affect the way you vote. It
should sway your voting in the direction of
economic
justice and concern for the well-being of the poor and
the marginalized.
Unfortunately,
many Christians in the United States (as well as the population
in general) have a very unrealistically elevated understanding
of how generous we are as a nation with regard to the rest of
the world. In fact, as a nation, ours is the tiniest percentage
of money given for humanitarian aid of
any developed nation in the world. I think a mature Christianity
would be concerned about policies of the federal government
regarding the rest of the world, both humanitarian
aid as well as very limited use of our imperial power. In addition,
being a Christian should affect the way one votes in local
school board elections. Good
public schools are a justice issue, because the bottom 50 percent
of our population has no choice other than public schools.
So,
yes, I would say a mature Christianity that sees the whole
of the
Biblical witness would be very much concerned about the
political order as the way we create a more just society.
It’s not just about charity. It’s about tax policy.
It’s about health care. It’s about all of those systems
that are ultimately political systems.
EXPLOREFAITH:
For many people a personal acceptance
of Christ as savior is key to their faith, and developing
and
nurturing
their personal relationship with
God is their number one priority. Do they need to broaden this
vision?
MARCUS
BORG: Many
Christians speak of the importance of accepting Jesus as your
personal lord and savior. And I agree, that’s critically
important. I
would say, however, it’s equally important to accept Jesus
as your
political lord and savior.
To accept Jesus as our political lord and savior affects how
we think
wealth should be distributed in society. It affects
whether and under what conditions we think war is justified.
So, a way of following Jesus that emphasizes only personal lordship
sees only half of the message. It’s about a political
lordship as well.
EXPLOREFAITH: How
can we integrate our faith into our politics without creating
an atmosphere of divisiveness
and resentment between those whose views are similarly grounded
in faith but whose conclusions over policy differ radically?
MARCUS
BORG: It’s
a very difficult question. Let me use an extreme example
that I don’t think applies to the United States
today. Go back to Germany in the 1930s when there are Christians
who are enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and Christians who
are very uneasy about Hitler, and some who are deeply critical
of Hitler. Now, should we say, “For the sake of
unity in the church, we just shouldn’t talk about Hitler?” I
think all of us would say “No, no…that’s
a critically important issue.”
In
the American church today, we face questions like “Is
it legitimate for the United States to start wars?” If
Christians disagree, that needs to be talked about
among those Christians and between those Christians on both sides
of the question. We should not set the question aside because
we don’t
want conflict within the church.
Thousands
and thousands of lives are at stake, and on
Christian moral grounds, as well
as grounds of national self-interest, it’s an extraordinarily
important question. The most helpful way to talk about such questions
is to do so in the context of shared worship, shared
prayer,
thoughtful
exposure
to the voices of the tradition, so that we, both on the left
and the right, submit our political opinions to the working of
the spirit through the Bible and the voice of the larger tradition.
Our private opinions about political matters need to
be subjected to the searching scrutiny of the spirit.
EXPLOREFAITH: Have
you witnessed examples of people coming together and new
understandings emerging?
MARCUS
BORG:
I’ve seen it to some extent in conversations about the
status of gay and lesbian people in the church. People
who came into the conversation strongly committed to what they
saw as the traditional Christian position had their minds changed
after talking with the
parents of gay and lesbian people, or
with gay and lesbian people themselves. However, I have not
been part of any discussions that have tried to bring together
Christians
who strongly favor
our current foreign policy and Christians who are strongly opposed
to it. So I don’t have any examples of that.
EXPLOREFAITH: How
can we ensure that the politics we claim to be Christian are
truly grounded in love and compassion?
MARCUS
BORG:
My best suggestion is that a group of people,
whether
they’re already on the same page or on different
pages, do a Bible study together of the Book of Amos. I suggest
the Book of Amos because it’s not very long - 9 chapters
- and because the political passion of the Bible is perhaps
clearer
in the Book of Amos than anywhere else. When I suggest
a Bible study, I don’t mean simply a single session; I
think it should be at least six sessions, and people should
actually read the book together, going through
the chapters verse by verse. It could be done two chapters
per session for four sessions, with an introductory session of
group-building. A sixth session would be centered around “What
did you get from this?”
Such
a Bible study does not guarantee
that the political opinions formed are genuinely
from God, but at least it will be a political conversation that
includes the Bible itself, and not simply people combating
one another with their strongly held opinions.
EXPLOREFAITH: You
chose an Old Testament book rather than one from the New Testament.
Is there a reason?
MARCUS
BORG: Partly because
the Book of Amos concentrates so exclusively on politics - there’s
not a lot of other material that can distract people - and because
the prophets of the Old Testament are speaking to a nation -
a people, Israel, still living together.
Much
of the New Testament is for very small, scattered communities
of Christians living
in many
different parts of the Mediterranean world. The issue there
isn’t “How do we structure the society as a whole
so that it reflects faithfulness to God?”
The
prophets, however, are still speaking to a single society.
There
certainly is a political dimension to the New Testament; two
of the
most
familiar phrases from the New Testament are religious-political
phrases. “The kingdom of God” is utterly central
to the message of Jesus and at the same time is a political
metaphor in the first-century world, because kingdom was a political
reality. There was the kingdom of Herod. The kingdom of Rome.
Here is Jesus speaking about the Kingdom of God. To his hearers,
that would have meant “this must be something different
from the kingdom of Herod and the kingdom of Rome.”
The
other very familiar phrase from the New Testament that is strongly
political as well as religious is that short phrase, “Jesus
is Lord.” Lord was one of the titles of the Roman emperor.
To say “Jesus is Lord” is to say the emperor
is not. To say “Jesus is Lord” is a radical criticism
of the imperial power of the day.
The New Testament as whole
is a struggle between the lordship of Christ and the lordship
of Caesar or the lordship of empire. So the political dimension
very much exits in the New Testament. Yet the
wonderful concentration that we find in Amos is what
makes it such a fine book for a group Bible study.
EXPLOREFAITH:
So, would it be fair to say that for you, a spiritual person is one who is also
active politically?
MARCUS
BORG:
In the Bible, both New Testament and Old Testament, I see the
personal
and the political as two sides of the same coin.
And if you don’t have one of those sides, you don’t
have a coin. Now, I also would say that in the development and
maturation of an individual Christian’s life, that individual
Christian might be much more aware of the personal, and become
aware of the political only later possibly, possibly not ever.
But nonetheless they are joined together in the Bible. It’s
not that the Bible is primarily about our personal relationship
with God and oh, by the way, there are a few political implications.
The Bible is a pervasively political document from beginning
to end.
The
story of ancient Israel begins with the Exodus from Egypt.
What is
that? It’s liberation from an oppressive economic
system, it’s liberation from a system of political domination,
and it’s a religious liberation. The same thing is true
with the prophets of Israel. They are God-intoxicated voices
of religious social
protest against the monarchy and aristocracy
of their time. Then Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God; Paul
says Jesus is Lord; the Book of Revelation is about the struggle
between the lordship of Christ and the lordship of empire. So
the Bible is pervasively political from beginning to end, even
as it is also about our relationship with God.
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