My friend is leading a prayer before the U.S. House of Representatives, and he’s worried about his prayer being perceived as “too political.” I shared with him a quote I encountered this week, a paraphrase of John Howard Yoder in a book called Evangelism after Christendom: “The question is not whether the Christian should be political or not. The question is rather to what sort of politics the Christian is called.”
The author also observes that “The interpretation of Jesus’ life and ministry as apolitical is itself a political option.”
This is not mere wordplay. The impact on politics of women and men of faith who try to avoid the “political” is tangible. It affects not only who gets elected, but also where public moneys get appropriated and which laws become enacted.
We can’t not be political. Living is political, especially when it’s done collectively, as by a church.
YoRocko! 