Politics and Prayer - Healing and Humanizing Ourselves before November 3rd
Probably every pastor and Christian leader in the USA is urging the faithful to pray for the upcoming election. In general, this is good advice, but it’s also woefully insufficient. If prayer is talking to God, what are we to say? If prayer is making a request of God, are we to request a blue or red victory? Are we to pray to “keep America great,” whatever that means, or are we to pray for the equally ambiguous, “reclaiming of America’s soul?”
While the New Testament does not have any directions about how to vote in an election, it does have a lot to say about reconciling with our brother or sister. As we face an election that will inevitably be a source of polarization and pain, our prayers ought to be for restoration and healing before they are for political success. The church is embattled with itself and with the broader culture. According to Matthew 5 Jesus instructs us to go and make peace with our brothers and sisters and to pray for our enemies. I suspect he’d apply this directive to us before we cast our vote as well.
Race and Politics
I can remember vividly sitting with black and brown colleagues and students in 2015 at the Urbana Student Mission Convention when Michelle Higgins gave a talk criticizing the evangelical church for its history of white supremacy. Michelle’s talk was controversial. The internet exploded with criticism. But, the community of students and colleagues I sat with were beaming with gratitude and hope. One colleague said, “the church is standing with us!” His hope was palpable.
Just a few months later 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump. The white church voted for Trump despite his use of the “law and order” rhetoric and its history of racist coding. The church voted for him despite his campaign promise of banning Muslims and building a wall to keep out Mexican ‘rapists.’ The irony of Trump’s boasting of groping women without their consent while making these campaign promises seem to have been lost on large segments of the church.
Many black and brown Christian friends experienced the 2016 election as a punch in the jaw. These friends had been working tirelessly within white and multi-ethnic spaces, compelled by a vision of reconciliation and hope. Many were disappointed with the church’s response after the death of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, or Tamir Rice, to name just a few of the racialized tragedies that have haunted our public life, but, they persisted in white and multi-ethnic spaces in hope that the church would stand with them.
It didn’t. Instead the white church responded with hostility to the #blacklivesmatter movement, seeing the hashtag and organization as an embodiment of the kind of anti-Christian antagonism it experiences from the culture. The tragedy is that although the church could have, and theologically should have, been the loudest proponent of the value, dignity, and beauty of black life, it failed to create an unqualified affirmation of black life in the midst of traumatizing public violence against black people, including black Christians.
Matthew 5:24 is clear that we must seek reconciliation when we discover our brother or sister has something against us. Here, in the realm of politics, the church is divided against itself. Before praying for a blue or red victory we need to pray for reconciliation. Perhaps we can pray for eyes to see ways our sisters and brothers in the faith have been trying to get our attention. Perhaps we can ask a trusted Christian brother or sister from another ethnic community how they are voting and what’s important about that to them.
Cultural Change & Christian Concern
It’s way too easy for commentators, even some Christian commentators, to interpret evangelical support for Trump exclusively on the grounds of racism. This unhelpfully stereotypes white Christians, painting them as bigots in order to diminish their concerns. Evangelical support for Trump didn’t emerge in a vacuum, but in a season of loss and significant cultural change for evangelicals. Understanding these losses and change will help us to humanize a community and perspective often dismissed by cultural elites. It will also help us to pray for the health and unity of the church.
Many evangelicals experienced Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 as government intrusion into religion. Evangelical leaders like apologist William Lane Craig shared justice Robert’s dissent, “Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law.” The idea that a condition, “instituted by God,” as many Christian liturgies emphasize, could be re-defined from the judicial bench of the supreme court was troubling to these Christians.
In response, Craig recommended, “Like Roe v. Wade, Obergefell v. Hodges has changed American culture in a way that runs contrary to Christian teaching. I think more than ever we as Christians need to be ready to stand up and live counter-culturally and to recognize that we are living in a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christian values. I am afraid that the church may not be up to this task.” It’s important to note that this sentiment does not emerge out of personal animus or lack of compassion for LGBTQ people, but rather flows out of what was perceived as hostility to Christianity itself.
Popular response to conservative Christian concerns over Obergefell v. Hodges has been largely dismissive. Evangelical Christians have been portrayed online and in print as bigots who just want to hold onto their ability to illegally discriminate against people who don’t believe as they do. One example of this is in the outrage over Chick-Fil-A. In a 2018 New Yorker article, “Chick-Fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City,” Dan Piepenbring writes, “And yet the brand’s arrival here feels like an infiltration, in no small part because of its pervasive Christian traditionalism.” Dan’s objection to Chick-Fil-A is religiously motivated. The problem isn’t framed simply as a matter of LGBTQ rights, or event gay marriage as such, the problem is “pervasive Christian traditionalism.”
Whether it’s Obama’s “guns and religion remark” from 2008, or Hillary Clinton’s 2015 comments about religious beliefs and structural biases needing to be changed, white Evangelical Christians in 2016 were enthusiastic to have a candidate promising to take them and their concerns seriously.
Matthew 5:38-48 instructs us how to respond to enemies. Rather than looking to a political candidate to champion our cause, Christians are called to pray, specifically for those who speak ill of us, mistreat us, or seek to take advantage. Perhaps we can pray for those who write and say disparaging things about traditional Christians online. Perhaps we can reach out to a neighbor who’s been hurt by the church, or is suspicious of Christians and ask to hear their story.
How to Pray
Simply praying that your side will win this election is unlikely to deepen your knowledge of God or increase your compassion for others. Embedded in Jesus’ famous teaching in Matthew 5 are practical ways we can pray despite the complicated dynamics of our world and culture.
We can pray for reconciliation in the places where the church has been torn apart by racism (Matthew 5:21-26).
We can pray for conciliation between church and culture (Matthew 5:38-48).
We can pray with and for people, candidates, and perspectives we don’t understand learning to love our neighbors as ourselves.
If we pray in these ways we will open ourselves to the possibility that there’s something much more important at stake than the winning or losing of one party or candidate. This conciliatory and humanizing perspective is vital to cultivate before the votes are taken and counted. If Christians can use this election to pray differently, perhaps we can begin to create the connections and relationships we will need to live and work together for the next four years no matter who wins in this next election.