A Christian President?
A Christian for President! Vote!
This is the signpost many of my neighbors and family may want to put up or the flag they want to fly during this season of presidential elections. It leaves me with the question, can you be a Christian President in the United States of America? I grew up in a home where I never, ever heard politics spoken of in front of us. I never knew who my parent voted for and they never discussed it. I found out later this was for the sake of their marriage, for they often voted for opposite parties. While not having this discourse led to a more peaceful election time in my house, I often wish I could’ve witnessed them talk about how each of them voted and why. My parents are amazing, in a lot of ways, but they missed a real opportunity to teach civil discourse.
N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird attempt to address the role of Christians in politics in their book Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. I felt challenged by their words, to find ways to speak of my faith in political and public spheres. If I am pretty silent about something, it usually means I have very deep feelings and no words. My husband’s family often brings up politics and proudly displays their leanings and I often have to leave the table to go “do the dishes”. I am just not equipped for debate. What is surprising to me is that if you asked them and myself the same question “Why do you vote the way you do?” We would say the same thing, I vote the way my faith tells me to, and we vote very differently. “If Jesus’ kingdom is of such an order, not from this world but for this world, then keeping out of politics is impossible.”[1] This is hard, I am very comfortable with the separation of church and state. I vote, but you won’t find me on a soap box with the sign for the candidate. I don’t put any on my lawn intentionally, to me, as a Chaplain for all people regardless of faith, I do not “signpost” my politics.
Wright and Bird quote Reinhold Niebuhr who “famously said, ‘Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”[2] One of the biggest worries I have is how all of America’s will go if it stays on the same trajectory. I’m not saying that Christians stormed the capital, however, I do think some individuals stormed the capital who are Christians and did what they thought wa
s right. I just don’t get it. When writing through a Hong Kong lens, “theologian Kwok Pui-Lan, tells us about the warning signs that democracy is being undermined. ‘The worrying signs that democracy was being undermined included sabotaging constitutions, sidelining legislative bodies in the name of representing the people, packing courts with loyalists, delegitimizing opponents and the election processes, attacking the free press, condoning or encouraging violence and threatening to take legal action against political rivals.” [3] This is a very disturbing quote from this book, and it sounds familiar.
Jesus and the Powers is an enlightening and readable book. It combines Biblical history and current affairs and brings them together in a way that almost anyone can understand.
Do I believe in Christian Presidents? NO. Do I believe a President can be a Christian? YES. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown thee, oh man (and woman) what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do Justice, and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God”. This is what I believe the highest office of our land requires, and also what is required of me. Whatever their faith, may God bless our next President with a will towards Justice, a heart of mercy, and a spirit of humility!
[1] Wright, N.T and Bird, Michael F. Jesus and the Powers; Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. (UK, Zondervan, 2024) pg 36
[2] Wright, N.T and Bird, Michael F. Jesus and the Powers; Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. (UK, Zondervan, 2024) pg 162.
[3] Wright and Bird, pg. 169
About the Author
Jana Dluehosh
Jana serves as a Spiritual Care Supervisor for Signature Hospice in Portland, OR. She chairs the corporate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging committee as well as presents and consults with chronically ill patients on addressing Quality of Life versus and alongside Medical treatment. She has trained as a World Religions and Enneagram Spiritual Director through an Anam Cara apprenticeship through the Sacred Art of Living center in Bend, OR. Jana utilizes a Celtic Spirituality approach toward life as a way to find common ground with diverse populations and faith traditions. She has mentored nursing students for several years at the University of Portland in a class called Theological Perspectives on Suffering and Death, and has taught in the Graduate Counseling program at Portland Seminary in the Trauma Certificate program on Grief.5 responses to “A Christian President?”
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Hi Janna!
Your writing and analysis are very insightful, particularly when you wrote, “Whatever their faith, may God bless our next President with a will towards Justice, a heart of mercy, and a spirit of humility!”
You effectively link the president’s strategic political position role with the Christian values that he/she should embody. My question is, to what extent do Christian values in a president’s leadership impact and contribute to the well-being of the country and its people?
Jana,
Thank you for sharing from the perspective of your childhood and not hearing political talk in the home. It is a way for us to train our kids and grandkids about civic responsibility and citizenship. It can also be a way to teach kids about how to disagree respectively without acts of violence, such as what we see in our culture (hatred and contempt in social media, cancel culture, physical violence, physical harm, etc.).
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly!
That’s kind of beautiful how your parents held very different beliefs but made it work. There is another couple I know that have the same dynamic, and I mean they are on VERY opposite ends of the spectrum and make it work. I think they channel all that energy into social media rather than one another!
I’m curious how your time as a chaplain helped you in your “confident pluralism”.
(On a side note, I’m not sure how we’ve gone this long and I never realized you have had some training in the Enneagram? That caught my eye on your bio. We talked through several personality tests on our staff retreat and that was one of them. Very interesting stuff!)
Jana, one of our retired pastors preached today on the Beatitudes and whether or not Jesus would be a “Christian.” One of his quotes was, “In today’s American society Christianity continues to be used by political parties and many churches to advocate and put forward their own agendas. There is Christian Nationalism on the right and some forms of prophetic activism on the left as well as many variations of these. And it seems to me, to support their views they all start with their own outlook and opinions and then bring Jesus into their arguments to support those views.” In your blog post you state, “I felt challenged by their words, to find ways to speak of my faith in political and public spheres.” I too felt convicted (I never use that word but feel it is appropriate here) to speak what I know to be true of the faith of those who TRY to follow in the way of Jesus, from the pulpit, in political spheres and generally anywhere it is being challenged (specifically amongst my relatives who are Christian nationalists…but that’s another post). What I wonder though is even if we begin with scripture rather than beginning with our own political agendas, can we be unbiased and truly speak to the way of Jesus? I hope so. I am just not sure any of us are truly capable of being unbiased toward a particular side/viewpoint. Okay – that went on longer than I thought it would!
Jana,
“This is what I believe the highest office of our land requires, and also what is required of me. Whatever their faith, may God bless our next President with a will towards Justice, a heart of mercy, and a spirit of humility!”….Yes to all of this!