Being Faithful in the Political Arena

I’m writing to offer a reflection on today’s conjoined occasions: President Donald Trump's inauguration, and the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth.

With the nation’s attention focused on the presidential pageantry taking place in Washington, DC, half the country is giddy at the prospect of four years of populist disruption, while the other half is despairing of a dire and dangerous future. The bitter tensions on this Inauguration Day feel inexorable, the culmination of the calendar preceded by rival conventions, contentious debates, and endless campaign ads. It’s worth asking, What drives our corrosive politics, and how might Christians act in this charged atmosphere?

One possible answer comes from an anthropological study dating nearly a century ago of an indigenous people in New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island, which anchors the Indonesian archipelago. Gregory Bateson was trying to describe the way human beings gain a sense of self by defining themselves against others. He called this schismogenesis – the fusion of two Greek words to mean “creation by division.”

Bateson’s theory suggests that individuals see themselves more clearly, and that groups generate loyalty more intensely, the more they differentiate against “the other.” We can see this happening in real time across our political spectrum, within our churches, schools, and communities. It's tempting to decry our moment in time, and our culture in crisis, as unique or unprecedented.

However, the anthropologist who coined the term schismogenesis wasn't commenting on the contemporary American church, or the nature of American politics. He published his research in 1935, based on studies of the Iatmul people who spend their days hunting, fishing, and gardening along a river – a great remove from our moment in America. Could it be that the tendency to define ourselves by what we're against – and to keep ratcheting up those differences, to elevate and magnify those differences – is innate to human nature?

I'm a hunter; you're a gatherer. Over time, not only do I eat more and more meat, but I stop eating vegetables, and not only do I stop eating vegetables, I think that people who grow vegetables are inferior. Through the lens of schismogenesis, Jesus's ministry might be viewed as a concerted effort to push against this tendency in humans. The parables He told, the ways He interacted with people, the story of His life, all seemed to work in cohesion to counteract schismogenesis.

Instead of dividing against our differences, Jesus urges us toward unity. He told story after story after story that subverted traditional boundaries and methods of differentiation. It's the Samaritan who is good, the Prodigal Son who is honored, the adulterous women who belong. The last is first, the slaves are equal, the meek are blessed. The Kingdom of God is upside-down, and it's upside-down because God doesn't create through division. Rather, He builds His Kingdom with love that overcomes our animosity, with unity that defies our differences.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female,” according to Paul’s letter to the early believers in Galatia. In God’s Kingdom, there is neither Republican nor Democrat. There is neither conservative nor liberal. “For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:28-29, RSV).

If Gregory Bateson examined the forces that deepen our differences, Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life we also celebrate today, offered this solution in a time of violent unrest that played a part in his own assassination: “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

The solution is both admonition and inspiration. For it reveals and condemns our collective shortcomings in the realm of politics – where disdain of “the other” is justified in the name of righteous victory – while simultaneously offering a path forward, perhaps the only path forward.

Loving your enemy is a miraculous act. This kind of miraculous transformation ought to be stunning and inconceivable to our secular compatriots, yet so commonplace that it becomes an expectation that marks all Christians, not just those of one party or another.

In light of Trump’s inauguration and on the anniversary of MLK Jr.'s birth, we share with you this video from our conference in 2022, when we hosted a conversation with former Gov. Bill Haslam, Republican of Tennessee; Sen. Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina; Sen. Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware.

The discussion among these followers of Jesus – each having won state-wide elections to earn political power – covered a range of topics around faith, politics, and the public arena. In this dialogue, I hope you find something refreshing and challenging, perhaps something to critique or contemplate.

As always, let me know what you think?