By Michael GryboskiMainline Church Editor Saturday, February 10, 2024

The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has released a guide for Christian political engagement amid a divisive presidential election year.

Released last week, “The Nations Belong to God: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement” was written by Andrew Walker, associate professor of ethics and apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a fellow at the ERLC Research Institute.

“Politics is a call to engage within a world that belongs to God, not ultimately to princes, presidents or prime ministers,” Walker wrote in the guide's introduction.

“My goal in writing this resource was to move Christians to a place of strategic engagement. That begins, first and foremost, with an understanding that the nations belong to God.”

Miles Mullin, vice president and director of research at ERLC, told The Christian Post on Friday that the commission wants to help churches deal with the issues stemming from election-year politics.

“We thought about how best to serve our churches during this election cycle, but we wanted something that would be useful beyond 2024,” Mullin explained. “We wanted a resource that was grounded in Scripture, fully Baptist in its approach, and relevant to the daily politics of local communities.”

“This guide, written by our colleague Andrew Walker, is just that. It presents a vision for political engagement that goes far beyond just voting, but encourages Christians to be involved at every level of politics in a way that honors the Lord and loves our neighbors. .”

The guide is organized like a catechism, with each chapter headed by a question and followed by a short answer, and then a longer commentary building on the answer.

There are 40 questions in the guide, including “What is Politics?”, “What is the Right Relationship Between Church and Government?”, “What is the Common Good?”, “Does Scripture Command a Particular Form of Government?” What's Unique About Christian Political Engagement?”, “What is Righteousness?,” and “Do I Have a Duty to Vote?”

Describing the “general purpose of Christian political engagement”, Walker stated:

“Remembering that Christ is the true King of kings, Christians must seek wisdom,
justice, and justice for the earthly common good, with a view to recognizing how God ordered and preserved the world for our good, and finally, for his glory.”

The guide states that Scripture does not offer a “precise formula” for what the ideal government structure should be. But Walker emphasizes that “[f]bluntly, a government that sets itself in opposition to God's moral law is a government that is unbiblical and will not survive long when its ultimate destiny is one of chaos.”

The guide advises against the idea of ​​state promotion of a formal religion or denomination.

“Scripture indicates that the jurisdiction of the government relates to land matters
only and is not to prevent, promote or directly interfere with religious matters,” he wrote.

“Baptists view established church-state arrangements with great concern,” the guide continues. “First, nowhere has the long-term vitality of the Christian faith been nurtured by the state's relationship with it. Where church-state establishments have occurred, they have always resulted in a secularized and nominalized faith adjusted to the needs of the state. Failing to distinguish what is Christian of a non-Christian, Christian identity becomes diluted.”

Walker urges Christians to temper their expectations for political victories.

“Christian should have punished expectations of politics in this age,” the document reads. “We are not promised total defeat or total victory apart from Christ ushering in his Kingdom.”

Mullin also told CP that while the ERLC “has published platform analysis summaries in the past,” the commission “has not published a policy engagement guide, per se.”

“Unlike other guides that focus on specific political details, this guide should serve as a framework for Christians to think biblically about their entire political activity, not just about one election,” he said.

“The guide also encourages Christians to think not only nationally, but locally, where they are likely to have the greatest influence. It is our hope that Christians will be inspired to do more than vote, and instead participate in their local communities,”. get to know your neighbors, and work definitively together with them without jeopardizing their Christian convictions.”

Mullin said they “wanted to be helpful to Christians as they serve their communities and seek the well-being of the places where God has placed them,” referring to Jeremiah 29:7which reads in part “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.”

“At the ERLC, we hope this guide will help remind people both that politics is important but not paramount,” he continued. “And political engagement, at its best, should be a tangible manifestation of that command to love our neighbors as we work toward a common good that both honors God and serves our neighbors well.”

“I think we will find that the Lord also opens up more opportunities to fulfill the Great Commission as we engage in politics as a way that is pleasing and honorable to Him.”

The guide comes at a time when many believe America, including its churches, is experiencing unprecedented division over politics.

Last year, David Platt, pastor of McLean Bible Church near Washington, D.C., and former head of the SBC's International Mission Board, published a book warning about how American political power can corrupt the Church's mission.

titled Don't Hold Back: Leaving the American Gospel Behind to Follow JesusPlatt warned that the “American gospel,” an ideology that “uses Jesus for comfort and power and politics and prosperity in the world,” was an internal threat to American churches.

“If we're not careful, we can conflate the Gospel with American ideals and values ​​and power and politics, and in the process, lose the way of Jesus,” Platt told CP in an earlier interview.

“What He has called us to is far greater than what we are tempted to grasp in this world, and especially in my country, with the pursuit of comfort and power and politics and prosperity here.”

The ERLC guide warns that there are “two equal and opposite errors when it comes to a Christian evaluating their love for their country.”

“One Christian is tempted to give uncritical love to his country as the 'patriot,'” he wrote. “Another Christian always criticizes his country, believing himself to be the 'prophet'. A better model is prophetic patriotism: a person who loves his country, acknowledging its fall and who loves his country even when he or she feels that criticism is necessary to reform it .

“But love for Christ calls for a higher love than what we can give to our country or nation,” Walker continued. “Christ demands our ultimate allegiance, and it is that
ultimate fidelity that informs how we must act and live in the midst of the nation where God
put us We can love our country best by not attributing to it love that Scripture
think it not worth having.”