By the People, For the People: A Political Voice for Progressive Christians

By the People, For the People

A Political Voice for Progressive Christians

By Franklin I. Gamwell

In Conversation with Protestants for the Common Good

BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

A Political Voice for Progressive Christians

Copyright © 2010 Franklin I. Gamwell. All rights reserved. Except for

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Foreword by John R. Buchanan

I suspect I am not the only member of a mainline denomination who has longed for a resource to which to turn when confronted with an overheated presentation of a controversial political or social issue based on theological and biblical premises I do not share. I suspect I am not the only clergyperson who has experienced the challenge of speaking a biblically faithful word about justice in an atmosphere that does not appreciate thoughtful nuance. We find ourselves caught sometimes between the over-simplifications of the extremists who know exactly what God thinks about a multiplicity of complex issues, even the particular political party God favors, and the ever popular mantra which is regarded as an absolute, incontrovertible truism that religion and politics do not mix. We learn that what that ordinarily means is the your religion and my politics don’t mix or more simply your politics are wrong so your religion must be, as well. Lurking beneath it all are the remnants of the dualism with which every generation of Christians has had to contend from the early Docetists to the current affirmation, my religion is personal, between God and me, it is a spiritual thing and it doesn’t have anything to do with politics.

We know better than that. Anyone with a modest familiarity with Hebrew Scripture knows the centrality of the notions of economic and political justice in our oldest traditions. In Psalm 82, the God of Israel convenes a meeting of all the deities of the world and scolds them for ignoring economic justice by mistreating and ignoring the weakest, most vulnerable, the widows and orphans. We know that Jesus was crucified not for criticizing religious legalism and teaching love, but, for launching what is clearly a Passover political demonstration that caught the attention of the religious and political power brokers in the capital city of his nation. We know that Paul was executed by Rome not because he was a successful church organizer but because his uncompromising faith, and the faith of the early church, that Jesus Christ is Lord, sounded subversive to the Romans who believed that Caesar is Lord, and the state is the unquestioned, ultimate gift and intent of the gods.

A huge change in American culture occurred several decades ago when religious conservatives who are inclined toward political conservativism, after years of relative silence and inactivity, found their voice. The emergent Religious Right organized, lobbied, spoke out on issues and became, in short order, one of the dominant forces in American politics. Candidates for office, including the presidency, reached out to this powerful new constituency, met with its leaders, and started to win elections.

The Presidential election of 2008 was an unprecedented illustration, for better or worse, of the political implications of religion. The candidates’ personal religious experience and religious affiliation, their positions on value issues, even their pastors’ sermons, were scrutinized, analyzed and became political issues themselves. Televised forums on faith and personal belief, appearances on the stage of America’s most famous evangelical megachurch were watched by millions.

We find ourselves in a new place; the relevance of religion to the political process is firmly established. And the critical question remains: how to think religiously about complex social and political issues: wars, recession and economic policy, the environment, and the whole range of personal, lifestyle issues and what, if anything, the body politic has to do with them, and how to arrive at faithful conclusions which translate into political convictions and, ultimately, votes?

In the middle of all of this, Franklin I. Gamwell has written an important and valuable book. He presents clear, reasonable arguments that lead from text and tradition to the most difficult issues of the day. As I read what he says about abortion, for instance, I found myself wishing that before launching broadsides—baby killer . . . chauvinist—everybody would take a break, read and talk about what this wise teacher has to say.

Running through this book is a critical and endangered notion of the common good. Gamwell dares to propose that there is such a thing and that Christian faith has a vision for the human community at odds with alternate visions in the culture. It is a vision of inclusivity that is contrary to the ideological divide that polarizes everything and erupts in culture wars. It is a vision that rests not on what divides us but the possibility of common ground on which we might actually stand together.

Perhaps, best of all, the author is not angry. Gamwell is, in the best sense, a scholar and a gentleman, a truly gentleperson, who, like the institution in which he teaches and which he served as Dean, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, is devoted to thoughtful, civil discourse.

This book will be a valuable resource in the classroom, the congregation, the book study group, and a source of stimulation and understanding for all of us who want our religion to be socially relevant, politically sensitive, theologically authentic, and finally, faithful.

John M. Buchanan

Pastor

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Chicago, Illinois

Preface

Protestants for the Common Good (PCG) was formed in 1995 to articulate and pursue politics as a Christian vocation and, thereby, to offer within our contemporary public life a progressive Christian voice. According to its mission statement, PCG educates and mobilizes people of faith to participate in political democracy for the sake of social justice and the beloved community. Based in the Chicago metropolitan area, the organization has been a significant force in effecting legislation in Illinois and, further, has participated in coalitions focused on national issues. From the outset, moreover, PCG has continuously sought to clarify for the Christian community and the wider public the relation between Christian faith and democratic citizenship, convinced that this contribution is both essential to PCG’s own political aims and important to the larger political community.

This book represents my engagement with PCG from its inception through 2007. The statements presented in Part Four are official documents of the organization, all of which address issues also discussed in previous items. Although I was the principal author of these official statements, each was extensively reviewed and revised by PCG’s board of trustees prior to its approval. All of the previous articles have also benefitted from discussions with my colleagues on the board. The articles in Part Three focus on some or other specific political issue. The articles in Part Two discuss the importance of religious ideals, broadly understood, in our public life. Behind everything that follows, however, is the organization’s theological self-understanding, and this is the focus of the article in Part One.

In addition to my co-directors on PCG’s board of trustees, I am especially grateful to Philip Devenish, who first suggested the publication of these reflections and helped to integrate them, and to Al Sharp, Executive Director of PCG, who has from the outset encouraged and supported the project.

As the article in Part One seeks to explain, principles of social justice authorized by Christian faith are inseparable from democracy—or, to make the same point, democracy is the political ideal of the beloved community. For this reason, the book’s title is borrowed from the unrivaled words of President Abraham Lincoln: By the People, For the People.

I am grateful for the following permissions to reproduce works I have published elsewhere. A portion of Faith and Politics: Details and Designs is reprinted with permission in a modified version from the June 5–12, 1996, issue of the Christian Century (copyright © 1996 by the Christian Century). The reprinted portion appears in the article Politics as Christian Witness. Affirmative Action: Is it Democratic? is reprinted with permission in a modified and expanded version from the January 24, 1996, issue of Christian Century (copyright © 1996 by the Christian Century). The reprint appears as the article Is Affirmative Action Democratic? and in the Statement on Affirmative Action. The Case for Regulating Campaign Finances: A Religious Perspective is reprinted with permission in a modified version from the March 4, 1998, issue of the Christian Century (copyright © 1998 by the Christian Century). The reprint appears as the article Campaign Financing: The Religious Reasons for Reform.

Chapters 5, 7, 9, 12, and 14 reprint in modified form parts of Politics as a Christian Vocation: Faith and Democracy Today, by Franklin I. Gamwell. Copyright © 2005 Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.

Part One

Theological Self-Understanding

1

How Faith Matters for Democracy

The founders of Protestants for the Common Good (PCG) perceived a special need for their venture, and their three principal reasons remain compelling today. First, Christian faith includes a vision for the human community and the common good profoundly at odds with certain alternative ideals widely influential in recent United States politics and implicated in some of its deepest faults. But, second, many so-called mainline Christian churches whose members might be expected to express this vision have, in fact, failed to appreciate and teach the relation between faith and democratic citizenship. Moreover, and third, the Christians who have been most visible and influential in our public life during the past several decades have represented the so-called Christian Political Right, which misrepresents the Christian faith and its ideal for human community. I seek here to clarify the understanding of Christian faith PCG intends to express in its activities and why that understanding is politically important.

In presenting the theology of PCG, I will mention some things to be discussed at greater length in subsequent writings and will, from time to time, footnote the relevant materials. Although my presentation here is not an official statement, it does, I am persuaded, identify convictions implied by PCG’s commitment to politics in accord with the democratic ideal, and I anticipate substantial agreement among my colleagues. Accordingly, I will speak here of PCG’s theological beliefs, doing so with the proviso that what I offer is my own accounting of them.

According to some recent observers, the Christian Political Right has passed its zenith and no longer enjoys the power it exercised during the past ten or twenty years. Various reasons for this change are noted, including, for one, the movement’s intimacy with the now widely unpopular administration of George W. Bush. Another is the increasing diversity of political purposes within the evangelical Christian community, from which the Christian Political Right has drawn its principal strength. Here at the outset, let me stress that I do not equate the Christian Political Right with evangelical Christianity. Many churches and individuals who call themselves evangelicals have not pursued the distinctive political agenda of the Christian Political Right. This may be increasingly true more recently, although the movement continues to be, I am persuaded, a significant force in American politics, perhaps now especially in certain state and local politics. Be that as it may, PCG’s theological convictions and their contemporary significance can be more vividly displayed in contrast to Christian Political Right, and I will proceed by way of that contrast.

Theology on the Christian Political Right

Wherever it is found, Christian faith affirms the religious significance of Jesus, and basic disagreements among Christians typically involve differing accounts of this belief. On the Christian Political Right, Jesus is the Christ because he was both human and divine, God’s son, and through his sacrifice, God opened for humans what otherwise would be unavailable because our sin would prevent it, namely, the chance for ultimate worth or what Christians call salvation. True relation to God first became possible when God became human in Jesus. Salvation depends, therefore, on accepting Jesus as one’s personal Savior. With this acceptance, we receive the promise of eternal life or life everlasting, and Christian discipleship during life on this earth is preparation for true fulfillment in the next world.

For many who see their Christian faith in this way, the life of preparation centers on the church, where the chance for salvation is preached and faith is cultivated and sustained. This focus does not forget the commandment to love those outside the church, to love one’s neighbor as oneself. To the contrary, charity toward all people is exhorted and practiced. But love for one’s neighbor seeks above all to bring about her or his personal acceptance of Jesus as Savior and thus the neighbor’s inclusion within the Christian fellowship. In this sense, God created the larger world as the stage on which the church may effect its higher purpose, namely, salvation to eternal life. So, the Christian community’s integrity and growth is God’s primary purpose and a Christian’s primary moral concern. Given these convictions, discipleship