Whose Side are You On?

Consider This…

If you grew up in Michigan like me, you probably remember that very important moment where you had to choose a side. It was basically a rite of passage for every young Michigander. All of your friends had already made up their minds. Your parents had done their very best to indoctrinate (brainwash) you into making the right decision…and now your first grade teacher was standing before you, asking the question you had been preparing to answer your whole life.

Do you root for Michigan or Michigan State?

In this great state (and across our country), complete tribal loyalty is something we are very familiar with, and I’m not just talking about collegiate athletics. These days, it seems we are being asked to choose a new side every week: republican or democrat; pro-mask or anti-mask; black lives matter or all lives matter. Our culture has led us to believe there is no middle ground on any of these issues. You’re either all in, or all out, and the tribalization only grows stronger when there is partisan alignment on all of these issues.

As a Christian, the way I am seeing this play out on social media is very troubling. I am watching well-meaning brothers and sisters, both inside and outside of our church, passionately engaging in these cultural issues from convictions that seem to have been formed more by a tribal, political allegiance than by a spiritual allegiance. In other words, I am watching people’s political identities lead the formation of their spiritual identities when it should be the other way around.

I understand why this happens too! These complex issues are made even more confusing by the vast amount of information and opinions that are so easily accessible to us through the media and our social media feeds. We don’t have the time (or even worse, we don’t know how) to do the hard work of processing through these things on our own — using the clarifying lens of scripture as our guide — so we often look to trusted people or leaders with shared values to tell us how we should be thinking about these issues. I am as guilty of this as anyone — and not just with political issues but with theological issues as well.

Here’s the problem for the believer: total political, tribal allegiance on every issue means we have made our partisan alignment our god. It means we have allowed the political leaders or influencers from our tribes to have a louder voice into our lives than the God who is longing to speak to us from His living and active Word. It means our Gospel witness is tainted as the world watches us care more about our union with our candidate than our union with our Creator.

As I was wrestling with this, I came across this article from Brett McCracken a few weeks back and this quote jumped off the screen: 

”Here’s the hard truth for believers wanting political influence in these times: consistent faithfulness to Scripture will never square with total alignment with any political party. A gospel agenda is not set by partisan think tanks in Washington, D.C. It’s set by Scripture. A gospel agenda may align with some aspects of one political party and some of another—and should spur us to engage in those areas—but it also decidedly rejects some aspects of both. 

God’s agenda is better, bigger, and more glorious than any one party, nation, culture, or time. The mission of Jesus will outlast every White House tenure. It will outlast America itself. For the Christian, the “right side of history” is always the side that places faithfulness to the eternal God above loyalty to a temporal tribe.”

This is not to say Christians shouldn’t have a tribe, but our complete and total allegiance shouldn’t be to the agendas of a donkey or an elephant. Instead, we come under and align ourselves with the eternal, Gospel-rich agendas of the Lion of Judah. We embrace discomfort as we take stances that might be unpopular with some in our community but align with the mission and values of our eternal King. As McCracken states, “It is our privilege and joy to constantly return to Scripture as we work out the implications of gospel-shaped life, taking our cues from God’s Word rather than the words of any political movement or cultural trend.”

I encourage you to read this article in its entirety and take a deep survey of your heart as you process through this issue. Scroll back through your social media posts and ask yourself, “Whose agenda is driving the way I engage with these issues?” Be honest. Is your faith shaping your politics, or has your politics shaped your faith? Are you known more for your zeal to make famous the name of Christ or for your zeal to make famous the name of your party or candidate?

This mindset may require a monumental shift in the way we lean into these discussions, but I believe it will only make the hope of the Gospel that much clearer for a world who desperately needs to hear it. Maybe now more than ever.

Oh, and go green.