What might it look like if Christians practiced the politics of Jesus?

In the 30-odd years I’ve been writing newspaper columns on faith and values, I can’t remember ever writing back-to-back columns praising essays by conservative Christian thinkers.

Last week, I told you about an excellent piece by David French, who argues that Christian political ethics have gotten turned wildly upside-down.

Then, just as my column on French came out, the Washington Post published Michael Gerson’s 4,300-word extravaganza, “Trump should fill Christians with rage. How come he doesn’t?”

It’s an even more powerful—and unusually eloquent—look at the same up-is-down state of white evangelical politics. It deserves to become a Christian classic.

Gerson’s bona fides as a political conservative and a Christian are beyond questioning. Before he became a syndicated columnist, he served under President George W. Bush as a senior White House assistant and speechwriter. I follow his work in the Post because he often writes, always graciously, about the intersection of religion and politics.

He opens this new essay by saying he’s concerned by “the perverse and dangerous liberties” many American believers have taken with their faith. They’re veering toward white authoritarian populism, an alliance that could threaten democracy.

Many white evangelicals, he says, feel as if they’ve been not only marginalized but placed under siege. And to an extent that perception is justified, or at least understandable.

The “disorienting flux of American ethical norms” and mockery from urban cultural elites have created among Christian conservatives “a belief that they are outsiders in their own land.”

Republican Party leaders have stoked those feelings “in service to an aggressive, reactionary politics. This has included deadly mask and vaccine resistance, the discrediting of fair elections, baseless accusations of gay ‘grooming’ in schools, the silencing of teaching about the United States’ history of racism, and (for some) a patently false belief that Godless conspiracies have taken hold of political institutions.”

Consequently, millions of Christians now support right-wing authoritarians such as Donald Trump and his imitators, who promise to fight their fights.

“It has been said that when you choose your community, you choose your character,” Gerson adds dryly.

Evangelicals’ “political alignment with MAGA activists has given exposure and greater legitimacy to once-fringe ideas, including Confederate nostalgia, white nationalism, antisemitism, replacement theory and QAnon accusations of satanic child sacrifice by liberal politicians,” he writes.

“Surveying the transgressive malevolence of the radical right, one is forced to conclude: If this is not moral ruin, then there are no moral rules.”

Instead, Christians ought to obey the Good News of Jesus Christ rather than seek political power or grudge-settling. The bulk — and best — of this essay explores what it might look like to practice politics using Jesus’ teachings and example.

The times of Jesus were uncannily similar to 21st-century America. The Holy Land, too, was bedeviled by a culture war among Greek cultural imperialism, a violent Roman occupation and Jews’ determination to preserve their land and religious identity. Often, the conflicts fell along an urban-rural divide.

Yet, Jesus gathered no army, became the pawn of no political faction.

Instead, he focused on the elements of Judaism that united all people: the love of God, the love of neighbors, enemies and strangers alike. Jesus welcomed social outcasts and praised religious and ethnic outsiders. He warned those who wanted to be bigshots that they’d be the least in his kingdom, and said the servants would be the greatest.

“Jesus rejected the role of a political messiah,” Gerson says.

Christ insisted that his kingdom wouldn’t come about because of Jewish nationalism. It wouldn’t involve armies or violence. Instead it would grow meekly, “soul by soul,” in Gerson’s words, “‘among you’ and ‘within you,’ across every barrier of nation or race — in acts of justice, peacemaking, love, inclusion, meekness, humility and gentleness.”

What might it look like today if white evangelicals were to live out Jesus’ model?

The author offers examples:

▪ Instead of engaging in vicious political infighting, Christians would seek the common good of their neighbors and reject any idea of greatness that makes others small.

▪ They would they would live free from grudges and ready to offer forgiveness, instead of being driven by anger and fear.

▪ “They would engage in argument without slander or threats — demonstrating not wokeness or weakness, but due regard for our shared dignity.” They would reject violence in word or deed.

▪ They would practice true humility, knowing that they, like all humans, are imperfect and prone to make mistakes in policy or individual behavior.

▪ They would honor the image of God in everyone, responding especially to the cries of the poor, sick and abused.

▪ “Instead of giving in to half-justified despair, they would assert that there is hope at the end of a twisting road. Even when their strength is drained by long struggle and the bitterness of incoming attacks, they would live confidently rather than desperately, with faith in God’s mercy and hope for a tearless morning.”

But I’m not doing this beautiful essay justice. Please read it for yourself.

Paul Prather is pastor of Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling. You can email him at pratpd@yahoo.com.