Political Incrementalism

Current politics has caused me to once again consider political incrementalism. Here I am typing this only four days before the supposed decision day of August 2^nd when the US government will in theory run out of money to pay all its bills if the debt ceiling is not raised. We have seen political high drama as the parties fight it out. Now, as the prophesied hour of high noon approaches the pundits are bewailing the bullying, lack of compromise, and political tactics that seem to dominate the very public play before us. Some of us are all for gridlock while others wring their hands. Some want the republic torn down while others want it built up.

I was listening to Laura Ingraham yesterday. She spent much of her time flacking against the Tea Partiers for their intransigence. They are not supporting the Boehner plan as she thought they should. Her thought (as with many conservative pundits) seems to be that conservatives should take the available incremental win and leave the political football field with a victory. She was worried that any more delay and fight would only lead to a reversal and re-gains on the political front by liberals. There is a certain logic to that of course, but here is some of what concerns me.

For Christians, (yes, Christians not conservatives), and I am writing to Christians here, these battles often rally us against our first principles. We find ourselves twisted into philosophical windings as we try to figure out what would Jesus do? How should we then live? What is the path of wisdom? Yet, somehow in the process we are being carried on the storms of political logic and expediency rather than on the winds of Holy Spirit revealed truth and Biblical reasoning. Our doctrine gets ‘left behind’ (rarely a good thing I gather) and the worries of the moment fill its place. The current fight overshadows a well crafted Biblical philosophy. We are transformed into morally gaunt citizens of the moment. We have no long term plan for victory, only a concern for the immediate events and how we may gain advantage.

I am concerned that we rarely think on the nature of who God has called us to be and how He has instructed us to live. For instance, while political, seeming necessity, calls for compromising, does a well-lived Christian life call for compromising? Are the worlds of politics and Christian life irreconcilable? When I reflect on the Biblical story and Biblical doctrine what I see are heroes and doctrines that resist compromise. I read of Joshua proclaiming, ‘as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’ or Elijah crying out to Israel that they must choose to either serve Baal or to serve the Lord, no compromise. I read of kings who did some righteous things, served God , ‘but’ the story goes on, ‘he did not tear down the high places’ and thus that king is recognized as finally unrighteous in this world. The heroes spoke impossible messages – ‘you should not have your brother’s wife’ was not a compromising conversation. ‘Let My people go’ was never watered down. Thankfully an ocean swallowed them all when Moses did not compromise with Pharaoh.

When it comes to moral questions Christians are not to compromise. We cannot allow a philosophy of incrementalism to sway us from the holy path God always sets for us. We are not trying to incrementally advance toward righteous behavior. We are, rather, to always and in all places live a righteous life and advance the righteous cause. The power of the sovereign God will keep the world turning as He wills. Our work is to exhibit righteousness both in private and in public, and not incrementally but wholly. The world will resist the righteous man, and if possible tear him low. This should not deter us nor ever turn us from the pursuit of right things. We are not to be enslaved to the politics of the moment. We are to be stalwart constructors of righteous, Biblically right, society. This is what our forefathers called Christendom, the earthly rule of Christ over all civilizations. The world may fight for position, control, and victory by its own means. But, we are not of the world. We are of Christ. All of what is before us is His work including the civil government’s struggles and the earthquakes it may bring. Our duty always is to speak truth instead of compromise. Truth and the moral absolutes of Scripture are the weapons we swing against the incrementalism and sloppy compromise we call political necessity in our day. Let the world make its declarations and predictions but we are not of their world, we are of Christ.

For Christian Civilization,

For Christendom,

Don Schanzenbach 7-30-11