Dear Fellow Citizens:

For those of you who may have been hiding in a cave for the past several weeks, we are now in the final stretch of the quadrennial presidential campaign. There is much at stake in this year’s election, but before we hunker down for the nail-biting results, we as Christians need to take a deep breath and remember God’s sovereignty.

The trouble with politics is our tendency towards idolatry, treating policy, platform, party or politician as if they hold salvific power, attributing our allegiance with a zeal that should be preserved for God alone. Don’t get me wrong, I believe politics matter; whole societies can rise or fall at the wisdom or folly of their leaders, but when it comes to our democratic participation in this republic, we must take care to avoid hitching our emotional and spiritual wagons to the yoke of fallible political systems.

Living under one of the most systemically oppressive regimes in history, Jesus had little to say about Roman authority. When asked about taxes (Matthew 22.15-22, Mark 12.13-17), Jesus pointed out that the coin used to pay the tax bore the imprint of Caesar’s image and title. He then suggested that if it had Caesar’s image, it must be Caesar’s coin and should be returned to him. On the other hand, that which bears God’s image must, in like manner, be returned to God. We human beings were created in God’s own image (Genesis 1.27), and so our devotion should be oriented toward the value of all who bear the imprint of God.

The difficulty in politics is not merely the temptation to elevate our candidates to the position of demagogues, but our tendency to demonize the opposition. In the middle of the political battle it’s hard to remember that election winners and losers are equally created in the image of God, who, by the way, are also sinners along with each and every one of their supporters.

Jesus’ dismissal of the argument about taxes was not a renunciation of political conversations but a reorientation of true value. What should have the power to divide us? Candidates? Platforms? Ideologies? Or the way we treat one another?

We’ve been here before. After the ballots are counted, disputed, tabulated and discerned, a victor will be declared and we will have to figure out how to deal with the outcomes and with each other. How we treat one another in the meantime will determine just how hard it will be to live with the results.

In Romans chapter 13, the apostle Paul commends compliance to the Roman government, even suggesting that a sovereign God places power in the hands of those who govern. These are harsh words for those who wish to challenge the status quo, but I believe these words must be read in the context of the next two chapters. Paul’s major thesis is to commend unity and encouragement rather than opposition and intolerance. Paul himself knew how unproductive political and ideological skirmishes were when it came to actually helping the weak and forgotten.

What is deceptive about the energy and imagination devoted to political arguments is how noble they feel and how unproductive they are. I have never witnessed a hungry person fed as the consequence of an ideological debate.

Trying to keep my politics away from my practices, I remain,

With love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your pastor