As a part of The Veritas Forum , Dr. Timothy Keller, Senior Pastor of NYC’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church was interviewed by journalist Martin Bashir and Columbia University’s Dr. David Eisenbach on the topic of his 2009 book, “Reason for God? Belief in an Age of Skepticism.”
According to their website, “Veritas Forums are university events that engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life. We seek to inspire the shapers of tomorrow’s culture to connect their hardest questions with the person and story of Jesus Christ.
“‘We’ refers to the hundreds of university community members who desire to host, plan, and coordinate a Veritas Forum on their local campuses, and the headquarter team in Cambridge, MA, with regional staff across North America and Europe.”
A high school friend of mine posted a link to the interview on Facebook, and I found the following sound bites about religion, politics, and privilege (specifically from Dr. Eisenbach’s Q&A portion with Dr. Keller) particularly interesting.
When asked about his views on the appropriate Christian response to political support of a candidate, Dr. Keller’s response matches my beliefs directly as to how church leadership should engage their congregations politically.
“At our church, I never even indirectly endorse a candidate. I also - we don’t use either code words, or rhetoric that would make, say Democrats or Republicans, Conservatives or Liberals feel ill at ease there. I’m registered to vote and I did just vote and I’m not telling you, and not only that I don’t tell anybody in my church and here’s the reason why: I really don’t think a party can capture Christianity. I’ve been saying for 30 years that if the Christian faith gets too identified with a party, it reduces Christianity to a political position. And I also know that actually when I read my Bible I see a breadth of concerns - a sort of a spectrum of concerns and I don’t see one party having the, cornering the market on them. So what we do at our church is we try to say not, ‘Don’t be political.’ I’m not saying that. But we want all- we want Democrats and Republicans to feel welcome and to be there and to feel like they can be part of the community. We talk about direct action on issues. Like say, ‘Go after poverty in this neighborhood. Go after education problems in this burrough. Go after environmental problems. As a church lets do it, and let’s get deep into the Christian text, and let’s be shaped by the Gospel, and then go out and vote the way your conscience takes you.’”
“…Seriously, it’s actually very important for me not to tell my folks how I vote… I’m not trying to knock anybody, but I think it’s a very bad idea for a Christian church to get too identified with a candidate or a party.”
Christians should be focused on engaging in direct action that improves the lives of other people. How can a political party claim to own the viewpoints of God? Right on, Dr. Keller!
He continues this discussion with a frank and honest look at how Christians have laid claim to both political parties, and identifies the difference in sides as being more in line with race than with religion.
“One of the scandals is that for the last 20 years, African American Christians and White Evangelicals - if you actually sit them down, ask them 50 questions about their positions - you’ll be amazed at how similar they are in their basic beliefs, Theological beliefs. Yet for the last 20 years Democrats could not win any elections without Black Christians, and Republicans could not win elections without White Christians. What’s up with that? I’m not even sure I know the answer. I’m not trying to say, ‘And that means…’ All I know is that when you actually get Black and White Christians together, their experience, see the experience is that Black Christians know that it’s not a safe country, and they believe that the Democrats realize that. And yet they also actually have some concerns that would bring them more in line with Republicans, but they’re not going to go there. A lot of White Christians who are Republicans just don’t seem to know what it’s like not to be White and fairly privileged. And so honestly if everybody sat down and talked about it, I really think that everybody would realize you really shouldn’t be in the back pocket of any- if you’re a Christian - you really shouldn’t be in the back pocket of any particular party year after year after year after year; that you ought to look at candidates, you ought to look at issues, that you ought to be - and it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be part of a party. You have to register to vote. I’ve registered to vote.”
I agree that churches should bring their congregations together around issues and should provide opportunities for direct action. Through living out one’s faith, one will gain a strong sense of what one believes to be right and wrong, and can then decide how to vote and what political action on should take. No party should take ownership of the Christian faith. Rather, Christians should come together through shared experiences and open dialogue to gain a better understanding of our similar and dissimilar beliefs. Really, EVERYONE should!
The entire interview with both Dr. Eisenbach and Bashir can be viewed here.
