I never want to reduce a book to quippy tweet-like punchlines. However, Jesus and the Powers by N.T. Wright and Michal Bird is absolutely chock full of amazingly powerful teeth punches\u00a0that capture so much of the significance of this important resource.<\/p>\n
Examples include the following:<\/p>\n
\u2022 “The greatest evils are not done by people who believe that what they do is wicked, but by those who believe that what they do is righteous” (pg. 148).<\/p>\n
\u2022 “Any government is better than anarchy” (pg. 152).<\/p>\n
\u2022 “Democracy is only as good as the people and institutions guarding it” (pg. 163).<\/p>\n
\u2022 “We need to choose truth over tribe” (pg. 169).<\/p>\n
\u2022 “Politics is like fire; get too close and you will burn; stay away and you will freeze” (pg. 97).<\/p>\n
\u2022 “Democracy’s strength is that it can sustain diversity. Democracy’s weakness is that diversity creates conflict” (pg. 170).<\/p>\n
I could go on and on, and it illustrates a key point that I would like to make (and might have just fallen victim to!): humanity loves quippy quotes pulled from their context, especially those that support their previously held biases and reinforce the power in which they believe they hold.<\/p>\n
This is especially prevalent in the faith community. You see, Wright and Bird say, “Of the mixing of religion and politics there is no end” (pg. 35). Many people believe that the Church should not get involved in politics. I have historically been one of those people. Others say that the Church should actively seek seats at the table of political power. I have a handful of those people in my congregation, and I honestly don’t know what to do with them, their blasted voter guides, their clipboard petitions, and their firey social media posts.<\/p>\n
My Mom was one of those people, albeit in pre-social media. She has since passed away. Until her death, she served as a Foursquare pastor and, before that, an Assembly of God pastor. Even before that, she was a “higher-up” for the Minnesota Family Council, the political activism branch of Focus on the Family. My mom and I would often have calm and civil conversations about her work and the role of the Church in the political sphere. Her common refrain was, “We gotta bring God back into our…fill in the blank…(schools, city halls, governments, etc).” I would keep saying, “Mom, I think that proverbial ship has sailed!” My mom’s response (whom I love dearly and miss deeply) to my “that ship has sailed” comment would be to double down on the Christian founding of America and that America has always been about God. Yikes. Where do I even start? It’s startling how often conversations shift to the faith and religious intention of our Founding Fathers. How is it possible to completely know the original heart and intent of people who lived hundreds of years ago?<\/p>\n
What it often gets reduced to are soundbites, something overheard from somewhere else (that we don’t really understand ourselves), and, sadly, clickbait designed to agitate and disrupt, even when it is most often not accurate.<\/p>\n