Five Possible Versions of Politics

Transcript

Rick Barry: Love’s a weird word. We stretch it out to try to get it to cover so many different things that it can sometimes create more problems than it solves. I mean, maybe it’s just me, but some of my most embarrassing memories are of someone saying to me, “I love you, but I’m not IN LOVE with you?” Owch.

This isn’t a new observation. I mean, it’s a tried joke at this point. Like everything, The Simpsons said it, if not first, then at least before I did:

In Christian circles, it’s really common to talk about how in English, we use that one word for what the New Testament writers thought of as five completely different ideas: Philadelphia and eros and agape and philoxenia and storge.

But we do something like this with the word “politics,” too. We just don’t often realize it. We use it in a way that’s kind of blurry. So let’s try to sharpen it up a bit. Let’s take a few minutes to break apart some of the different definitions that we usually keep all bundled together into that one word. If we can do that, maybe we can avoid confusion and think a little more clearly and have better conversations with our friends and families and neighbors.

So, what does politics mean?

The Funny Definition

There’s the most literal definition and the funny version of the most literal definition, which I’ve heard sometimes credited to Robin Williams and sometimes to Myron Fagan, and I think I heard it credited to Dave Barry once, and I’ve heard quoted by politicians and Hill staffers and brutal cynics everywhere else. And that kind of funny definition is, “Well, ‘Poli’ means ‘many,’ and ‘tics’ means ‘blood-sucking animals.’” But I think that’s a little too cynical, at least for our purposes today.

Life of the Many

So let’s start by looking at The Life of the Many.

When we’re talking about “the life of the many,” we’re talking about our society’s systems, and institutions, and traditions, and rules, and norms. The things that give shape and order to our relationships to more people than we could ever actually know personally. The things we share with people we’ll probably never actually meet. 

When we’re talking about “the life of the many” in the US, we might sometimes say, “civic life,” or we use the metaphor “the public square.”

Government

The second thing we might mean when we say “politics” is “Government.”

Government is a specific set of institutions within the public square that have the authority to make and enforce rules and regulations.

Government is one of the institutions that is specifically ordained by God in scripture for humans to create, use and maintain for the sake of the common good and human flourishing. And the Bible tells us that government is an institution that will continue to exist when the kingdom comes. Jesus will bear the government on his shoulders, according to Isaiah. But, crucially, the Bible doesn’t necessarily endorse a specific style of government between the fall and the resurrection. For everyone except Israel between the Exodus and the exile, the Bible is DESCRIPTIVE when it talks about governmental structures, not prescriptive. 

We’ll talk a little bit more about that in another video real soon.

Policy Development

The third thing we might mean when we say “politics” is “Public Policy” or “Policy Development.”

Policies are the specific rules and regulations that governments develop and enforce.

In the US, different kinds of policies are developed through different processes, but most of those processes try to strike a balance between allowing elected officials some degree of space to exercise their best discretion (on the one hand), and instituting procedures to allow members of the public to weigh in on the policies being developed (on the other hand).

Power Dynamics

The fourth thing we might mean when we say, “politics” is “Power Dynamics.” 

Power dynamics exist anywhere two or more people try to relate to one another, solve a problem together or reach a goal together. It’s what we mean when we say “office politics.”

How do we make decisions or take action as a group? Do we collaborate? Do we compete? Do some people just defer to other people? And if so, how do we decide who leads and who defers?

Partisan Competition

And the last of the five definitions we’re looking at today is Partisan Competition

This is a very specific kind of power dynamics, centered around who gets the most influence over our policy development, and who gets the most influence over our cultural norms.

The US developed a two-party political system after George Washington retired, and for most of the time since then, on the national scale, at any given time, we’ve generally had two major organized factions of people working in government and talking about government. These two factions generally compete with one another for favor among the voters, and for power over the process of government. The parties change over time. Sometimes a third one pops up for a few years, but either that third party falls apart, or one of the legacy parties falls apart and the new party takes its place.

How We Get Confused

So, those are five different things that we might mean when we think of something as “political.” And I think a lot of times we end up mixing up our reactions to these things. We end up reacting to government like we’re being asked to participate in power dynamics, or we react to thinking about policy like we’re being asked to participate in partisan competition. 

Chances are, if you think you want to stay out of politics, or you think politics is bad for the church, or bad for society, or bad for relationships, you’re thinking about one of these definitions more than the other. And actually, I’m curious: Which of these definitions comes most naturally to you? When you think of the word “politics,” which of these definitions comes to mind first? Let me know in the comments section.

But whichever definition comes to mind first, when we try to keep all five definitions distinct in our minds instead of bundling them together, it might start to change the way we relate to the people around us—and to the political process in general!

I think that, for a lot of us, we think that we don’t care much about politics when the thing that actually turns us off is partisan competition. We feel out of place in the major parties, or we don’t like the way that commitment to a partisan tribe has malformed the church.

A lot of us were raised to not talk—or maybe even think much—about politics, under the assumption that it’s divisive, or rude, or unproductive. And that’s maybe a good attitude to have…if politics ONLY means partisan competition. I’d argue that it’s probably GOOD for Christians to not totally feel like we have a place in the partisan paradigm. We might lean one way more than the other, but ultimately, we’re supposed to be resident aliens, right? 

How These Distinctions Change Us

But if politics means more than just partisan competition to us, then we have to at least CONSIDER caring a little more about some of those other definitions, some of these other dimensions of politics.

We have to actually pay attention to the way we navigate power dynamics, for example, because we’re following in the footsteps of one who would not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. The one who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor. Who, though being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but took on the form of a servant. We’re following a savior who was very careful about how he used his social and relational power.

Or, if we get really invested in loving and serving our neighbors, we might find ourselves getting a little more invested in policy development. After all, policies always have tangible effects on people. 

Sometimes the people who are affected by the policies that get developed are people we see and whose voices we hear. And sometimes they’re people we’re pretty well insulated from, whose voices we don’t hear all that often. Just two days ago as I’m recording this, a state Senator in Minnesota said that he has never met someone in his state who has had to go hungry. But the gospel calls us to draw closer to the people we wouldn’t normally be around, the people whose cries we probably wouldn’t usually hear.

So, for the next week or two, let’s try something new together. Let’s try disciplining our minds together, or, if I can use a biblical phrase, “taking every thought captive” together. Any time we hear someone talk about politics or see someone post about politics or find ourselves thinking about politics, let’s try to make it more specific. Let’s ask ourselves, “Is this person talking about the life of the many?” “Is this post about policy development or is it more about partisan competition?” 

Keep doing this, and, eventually, it’ll get easier for us to salvage conversations with friends or family members that are going south, because we’ll get better at not lumping the identity stuff—the partisan competition—in with the other stuff. And being deliberate about making those distinctions will probably force us to be a little more careful about the way WE talk and think about issues that are important to us, too.

Sample Prayer

Heavenly Father,

You are king of kings. You are lord of lords. One day, every crown will be set at your feet. Every knee will bow before you. Your people will join your royal parade. And every mouth will sing your praise.

The day is coming when your son will sit on a throne and rule with wisdom and mercy and justice and glory. But until that day comes, you trust us to live our lives as a testament to what you’ve done for us in the past and what you’re preparing to do in the future.

You tell us to live our lives not just innocent as a dove, but also wise as a serpent. Too often, we set aside the command to live with that kind of wisdom, because it’s just too much work. We’re more comfortable than we should be treating complicated things as if they were simple, or conforming to the patterns of the world, because doing anything else seems overwhelming.

We know that if we start digging in to questions about government, and partisanship, and civic life, we’ll never reach the bottom, and we don’t want to live obsessive, unbalanced lives. We don’t want to ignore everything else you call us to be. But we also don’t want to stop loving you with all of our minds when the thing on our minds is politics. So please, help us. Help us to recognize when problems are more complicated than we want them to be. Help us to not let your church be seen as an easy mark by people who are more interested in amassing power and shoring up votes than living lives of humble faith before your son. And help us to do all of this with hope and endurance in a cynical and tiring world.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, who will one day bear all government upon his shoulders.

Amen.