How Identity Politics Can Undermine Christian Faith

I I Graphic courtesy of The Spectator

The opinions reflected in this OpEd are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, faculty and students of The King's College

A recent study from Pew Research identified deepening fault lines in the American political landscape. The data indicates a pronounced rise in partisan loyalty along a Conservative/Liberal dichotomy, which reached a record high in 2014 and has continued to widen throughout Donald Trump’s presidency. 

The gap in partisan political affiliation is significantly wider than any other demographic difference, such as racial, religious, or educational divides, the study found. The general animosity between Republicans and Democrats has followed suit. According to the study, among Democrats, 44 percent hold a very unfavorable view of Republicans. Among Republicans,45 percent hold a very unfavorable view of Democrats. 

One look at social media platforms, political debates, or ideological discourse testifies to this growing divide. Political tribalism and sectarianism is on the rise, and it is only worsened by a seemingly endless election cycle. The American campaign cycle is among the longest in the world, significantly lengthier than those of Mexico, Australia, France, and Britain. 

The evidence elucidates one daunting reality: Americans are pressured to conceive of themselves primarily in partisan political terms—a reality which poses a discernible threat to the Christian political vision. 

Seminal Christian thinker, C.S Lewis anticipated this tension between transcendent and temporal loyalties: “The danger of mistaking our merely natural, though perhaps legitimate, enthusiasms for holy zeal, is always great. The demon inherent in every party is at all times ready enough to disguise himself as the Holy Ghost,” he wrote. 

He was concerned about the prospect of assigning divine infallibility to a necessarily fallen political structure. Instead of working to correct the faults within a party and the world at large, this feared paradigm obscures real issues from vision entirely. 

In their book “C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law” associate professors Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson of the University of Missouri and Calvin College analyze Lewis’ political thought throughout his public works. 

Lewis believed that Christian citizens do not “have the authority to represent his or her prudential judgment as required by Christianity and that no political party can come close to approximating God’s ideal. Christianity is about ends, not means, according to Lewis, and so he spent a good deal of his life articulating what he believed was the telos, the ultimate purpose, of human beings. Lewis was convinced that partisan political engagement often undermined that effort,” they wrote. 

The creeds of Christianity dictate ethical parameters and a defined conception of the human good. However, political action is concerned with more than a mere promulgation of abstract philosophical ideals. Transposing Christian teleology into concrete political action requires the work of reason, practical consideration, and creativity–which opens the door to legitimate disagreement. 

By identifying primarily along partisan lines, many Christian citizens mistake the means for the ends. No political party perfectly overlaps with Christian doctrine. If one never experiences tension between her religious convictions and her political affiliations, it is likely because her loyalties belong to the latter.