"Christians Shouldn't Hold to a Political Party"

“Christians shouldn’t hold to a political party. After all the kingdom of God transcends political parties, and it’s not like one party is God’s party.” How many times I have heard statements like this in recent years would be impossible to number. What I find interesting about the times these statements have been made to me, is that they are usually the result of someone not liking the fact that I have stronger allegiance with one party over another. It’s almost as if it is a last ditch effort to get me to follow their allegiances which inevitably line up with a party other than the one I find the strongest.

It is true that the kingdom of God transcends political parties and that no party is inerrant, but that doesn’t mean that a Christian is breaking some kind of moral law if they join the ranks of a party in order to accomplish something greater as a group than they would be able to do on there own.

Will there have to be some compromise in certain areas? Of course there will, there is not a human organization that we could be apart of that doesn’t involve some compromise. If the criterion for Christians to support or participate in an organization is infallibility, then we should withdraw from all associations, even Christian ones.

Christians should be wise in their efforts to promote the good and restrain evil. William Wilberforce was one such man. He joined ranks and became part of parliament not because parliament was God’s organization, or because somehow parliament epitomized the kingdom of God, instead he saw it as an opportunity to create positive change to promote the kingdom of God. Because of his work, slavery was abolished and we made a giant leap in promoting justice in this world, and justice certainly is an aspect of the kingdom of God.

The hope of this world is found in Jesus Christ not political parties, but a Christian has been called to love his neighbor, and being a neighbor implies being part of community, or society, and also includes a state, a country, and even the world. If we think that the policies that govern these communities have nothing to do with loving our neighbor because “the hope of the world isn’t found in politics”, it would be like saying, “I love you but the unjust policies which govern your life, I will not work to change because that’s politics and the kingdom of God transcends that. Besides, if I happen to choose a side there is probably a political party that holds strongly to those issues and then where would I be? I would be one of those Christians who thinks that God actually has a position on these issues and that he might actually agree with one party more than another. Crazy, I know… Good luck with your oppression or any other problems you may be facing because of public policies. ‘Be warmed and be filled.’”

Doug Eaton