“Christian Democracy”—an Oxymoron?

The Religion and Society Debate                       

9 — November 19, 2007

Can the word “Christian” ever convey a positive connotation when used in conjunction with politics and government, or does it necessarily carry the negative baggage of past imperialisms? Is a phrase such as “Christian democracy,” for example, an oxymoron, which Webster defines as “a combination of contradictory or incongruous words,” or can it stand on its own with integrity?

Americans champion democracy and many American Christians believe this is a Christian nation. In that regard, the combination of words hardly sounds oxymoronic. Yet the more we gain historical distance from the era of slavery, anti-Catholicism, and male-dominated White-Anglo-Saxon Protestantism (WASP), the more it appears that “Christian America” is a holdover from “Christian Europe.”

Today, we repeatedly hear and read warnings about the threat of the Religious Right to re-impose Christianity on American society. Religious “fundamentalism” of any kind is regularly associated, if not equated, with radical Islamism. Christianity may be something fine and constructive if it remains confined to its worship services and its helping ministries to the poor and needy. But as soon as there is any sign of Christians pushing for political power, the warning flags go up.

There can be no doubt that Christians (and church institutions) have, in the name of Jesus Christ, used power unjustly to abuse and subordinate others (including other Christians). The first political act by Christians today, therefore, should be to repent of those practices and institutions of injustice that we and our ancestors have supported. Yet such an act does not by itself answer the question of the just use of political power. To assume that if Christianity is disconnected from democratic power justice will automatically be achieved is a foolish and mistaken assumption. Think of all the injustice that has been perpetrated by secular-democratic nationalists, socialists, and liberals.

The question about Christianity and politics, then, is more profound, as is the question about the relation of political power to any set of deep convictions people may hold. The question is whether Christianity, from its deepest roots, drives toward public justice for all citizens, including equal, public-legal treatment for people of all faiths.

This is the question that calls for serious examination today. And the place to start is with the Christian scriptures. For there is no evidence in the Bible that Jesus Christ and his apostles called on government to impose Christianity on the public at large or urged Christians to use political power to gain privileges for themselves. Jesus recognized the legitimacy of government and spoke of God as the one who sends rain and sunshine on the just and unjust alike. He also told his disciples it was not their responsibility to separate believers from unbelievers in the field of the world. Paul urged Christians to recognize and submit to governments as ministers appointed by God to encourage those who do good and to punish those who do wrong. And he admonished fellow believers to live at peace with everyone insofar as it depends on them.

Both the Old and the New Testaments speak of the accountability of governments to God directly and not via submission to the church. Israel, of course, had its own governments, and those in power were repeatedly called to account for not doing justice to the people and even to the aliens within. The greatest body of biblical wisdom on government (in the historical books, Psalms, the prophets, and the wisdom literature) focus attention on government’s obligation to do justice to all, especially those who have little or no power, rather than on ways to keep believers in control of unbelievers. When Job speaks of the awe he inspired as a governing official it was because “I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him . . . . I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, I took up the case of the stranger” (29:12-16).

A phrase like “Christian democracy” should not be an oxymoron. In fact, I would contend that Christianity, properly mined, is the very fount of an open society offering equal treatment to people of all faiths, political participation and representation for all citizens, strong protections against the abuse of power by government, and provisions to protect the rights of non-government organizations and institutions on an equal-treatment basis. If this is true, then the critical re-reading of history must continue in order to help us understand why and how Christians have accommodated themselves to Roman imperialism, to modern statism and nationalism, and to other means of seeking privileged positions of power.

A “Christian-democratic” approach to politics and government should carry a banner that says, “We will never claim that our deeds or policy proposals are God’s will, but only that they represent our humble human effort to respond to God’s call to do justice.” The will of God is God’s to reveal. If our modest efforts to promote justice in an open public square can mature into a multi-faceted program of just statecraft, then perhaps one day an explicitly Christian approach to politics will be respected both at home and abroad as an honorable and valuable part of the political process.