PRAYER AND POLITICS

Last week I attended the Transatlantic Christian Council in Brussels, where many prominent Christian thinkers and politicians from both Europe and the United States were gathered for a conference. One of the speakers was Mr. Frits Bolkestein, former Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Defense as well as former member of the European Commission.

 

During his speech, he stated: “Church should stay out of politics and should have no claims on political ideologies”. Of course Mr.Bolkestein is not the first person in history bringing up this idea but I was a bit surprised to hear such a statement from a Christian thinker. So I started to think and tried to understand why he said that and actually also, why this idea of separation between church and state (coming from the Treaty of Westphalia in the 17th century) is widely accepted in today’s Europe as well as in other parts of the world.

 

Digging deeper, we find out that in Europe, the understanding of the church is quite different according to the denomination in question. In countries where Catholicism is dominant, the church is seen as a hierarchical structure that has, or rather had, power over the country. For example, the principality of Liège, an independent state for 800 years, was led by prince-bishops. Of course the title of these leaders shows clearly that church and power were definitely in the same box. Under this kind of dominant church over a state, many atrocities have been committed in the name of the Lord and no space was left for people daring to think differently than the leaders.

 

As the catholic view of church is seen as vertical (from the top to the bottom), the understanding of church in the Northern countries, dominated by the protestant ideology, is quite different and more horizontal. Church is seen as a totally separated body from the state structure and the idea of having a church leader such as a Lutheran pastor dominating the political realm might be seen as a conflict of interests.

 

But is the idea of separation between church and state valuable? Or is it even Biblical? Christian people believing that church and state must be separated will often defend their thinking by mentioning the model of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and the role that God gave to the Levites. This tribe had a different calling as the other eleven as they were appointed to do the work of the priesthood for the nation, being the connecting point between people and God.

 

But since Jesus Christ came into this world, died and rose again, the role of the Levites, as it was during the Old Testament time, is not anymore needed. Jesus is now filling the role of the perfect Levite for us and since he is still alive, there’s no need to find another one. So even though we are considered in the Book of Hebrews as a priests, the role of a catholic priest, an orthodox patriarch or a protestant pastor can’t be assimilated fully to the one of the Levites in the Old Testament.

 

Now if we look in the Bible, the church is nothing less and nothing more than the group of people believing in Jesus Christ. And actually Jesus asks his church to be the light of the world. This means that anyone believing in Christ has to be influential in the world, bringing God’s love in any realm he might be, whether in politics, in schools, in hospitals, in business, in factories or simply at home.

 

Instead of opposing the two ideas of church being the state and church separated from the state, I would rather propose a third idea which is church being influential in the state. As said earlier, we are a kingdom of priests and also the light of the world. And as for the political realm, our only goal needs to be bringing God’s love to the state, whether we are in a position of influence or not. I don’t believe that it was out of God’s love that some “Christian countries”, actually horrible dictatorships, killed anyone who did not embrace the dominant faith. And I don’t believe either that God wanted his people to stay out of politics and not influence political ideologies as suggested by Mr.Bolkestein last week and as widely accepted in today’s world.

 

Indeed, if church should be separated from the state, should someone whose only goal is to share God’s love be therefore excluded from any influential role in society? Should such a man be deprived from any position of power? Jesus said: “We don’t put a lamp under a bowl but we put it on its stand and it gives light to anyone in the house”. The role of Christians in politics should be translating Biblical principles in policy-making (ie. love your neighbour as yourself). God’s calling on his people stays the same today as it was 2000 years ago.

 

Cédric Placentino

December 12, 2013