Tim Keller writes in nuanced language. But in his latest column in the New York Times, the incarnation of the intellectual think-tank of the American religious left (as embodied in Tim Keller) has a simple message: Christians shouldn’t vote straight-line Republican. Projecting himself as above politics, the man who has asserted more times than I have fingers that he is greatly influenced by the Frankfurt School of Marxism, wants evangelicals to know that they should vote for both parties, and that both the Democratic National Convention and the Grand Old Party are equally as virtuous. His goal is simple, and that is to get as many evangelicals as possible to vote Democratic in the upcoming 2018 election, shifting the longtime tradition of evangelicals forming a politically conservative voting block.
Keller, who is more a political ideologue than a theologian, gathered several months ago with other Marxists and leftists to strategize on how to pull as many evangelicals to the political left as possible before the next election. We wrote about that in the post, Marxist Brain Trust Gathers at Wheaton to Discuss Moving Evangelicals Left. Any naivety that Keller’s New York Times column is just a simple exhortation for Christians not to be beholden to a single political party (as some claim) should be betrayed by his lifelong allegiance to Marxist theory and his April meeting with evangelicals where they strategized ways to make evangelicals vote Democrat.
Keller writes in the New York Times:
The Bible shows believers as holding important posts in pagan governments — think of Joseph and Daniel in the Old Testament. Christians should be involved politically as a way of loving our neighbors, whether they believe as we do or not. To work for better public schools or for a justice system not weighted against the poor or to end racial segregation requires political engagement. Christians have done these things in the past and should continue to do so.
Of course, there is not an inkling of Scriptural data to suggest that either Daniel or Joseph had any social agenda whatsoever, least of which was working “for better public schools.” And while a justice system should not be weighted toward the rich, it should also not be weighted toward the poor, which is precisely the goal of Marxists like Keller. Regarding our current supposed need to end racial segregation, one wonders exactly what institution in America still lacks integration, except for perhaps jazz music and professional hockey. Of what is Keller speaking?
Nevertheless, while believers can register under a party affiliation and be active in politics, they should not identify the Christian church or faith with a political party as the only Christian one.
While it is true that no single political party is synonymous with the Christian Church and no single political party can claim to exclusively represent Christian values (there are lots of smaller political parties, like the Constitutionalist Party, for example, that purport to have a Judeo-Christian worldview), it is unfair to say that some political parties don’t better represent Christianity than others. While the current POTUS is certainly an adulterer, whore-monger, and a profane man with no semblance of Christianity about him, the reality is that the opposition party is a declared enemy against God and stands starkly opposed to virtually every single issue of importance to evangelicals. There is nothing remotely Christian about the DNC, from platform to politicians. A whole host of Republican politicians may very well be as personally wicked as Democratic politicians (although I doubt it), there is no doubt that one party’s platform is a literal checklist of the things that God detests.
Criminalizing abortion and putting to death abortion doctors and abortive parents is a social justice issue that all Christians should get behind, but abortion remains the holy blood sacrament of the Democratic Party. Their inclusion and mandated-celebration of the LGBTQXYZLMNOP agenda leaves us believing the DNC should change their headquarters to Sodom. The DNC’s systemic oppression of people of faith and their fascist-like opposition to our rights of conscience on matters ranging from health care to gay wedding cakes should be categorically rejected by anyone who believes in Soul Liberty. Their intentional removal of language referring to Christ from the public square should ring out to us as evidence of the depravity of their heart.
If the Republican Party can be considered “worldly,” the Democratic Party should be considered as hell itself.
Another reason not to align the Christian faith with one party is that most political positions are not matters of biblical command but of practical wisdom. This does not mean that the church can never speak on social, economic and political realities, because the Bible often does. Racism is a sin, violating the second of the two great commandments of Jesus, to “love your neighbor.” The biblical commands to lift up the poor and to defend the rights of the oppressed are moral imperatives for believers. For individual Christians to speak out against egregious violations of these moral requirements is not optional.
Right. So, we should stop murdering infants in their mothers’ womb.
I know of a man from Mississippi who was a conservative Republican and a traditional Presbyterian. He visited the Scottish Highlands and found the churches there as strict and as orthodox as he had hoped. No one so much as turned on a television on a Sunday. Everyone memorized catechisms and Scripture. But one day he discovered that the Scottish Christian friends he admired were (in his view) socialists. Their understanding of government economic policy and the state’s responsibilities was by his lights very left-wing, yet also grounded in their Christian convictions. He returned to the United States not more politically liberal but, in his words, “humbled and chastened.” He realized that thoughtful Christians, all trying to obey God’s call, could reasonably appear at different places on the political spectrum, with loyalties to different political strategies.
This is Keller’s point…be more politically liberal. It’s okay. Nevermind that socialism has always been a great enemy of theism and Marxism is responsible for the death of 100 million people in the 20th Century. Nevermind that socialism has never proven itself a friend of “human flourishing” and has only led to the starvation and oppression of the masses.
This emphasis on package deals puts pressure on Christians in politics. For example, following both the Bible and the early church, Christians should be committed to racial justice and the poor, but also to the understanding that sex is only for marriage and for nurturing family. One of those views seems liberal and the other looks oppressively conservative. The historical Christian positions on social issues do not fit into contemporary political alignments.
What Keller is espousing here is the Christian Democrat and Communitarian philosophy of Russell Moore. The idea is that Cultural Marxism and Critical Race Theory and dismantling sovereign borders through illegal immigration are inherently Christian ideas. Those of this philosophy are Marxists, both culturally and economically, but maintain a (supposed) Biblical ethic on human sexuality. We’ve seen how much these evanjellyfish have defended traditional marriage and asserted the sinfulness of Same Sex Attraction, which is not at all. Amazingly, abortion seems to have become a complete non-issue to Keller.
The Gospel gives us the resources to love people who reject both our beliefs and us personally. Christians should think of how God rescued them. He did it not by taking power but by coming to earth, losing glory and power, serving and dying on a cross. How did Jesus save? Not with a sword but with nails in his hands.
This is actually heresy. Jesus did not “lose” power or “glory.” That is called kenosis, and I addressed it in my podcast here. Jesus lost none of his divinity in the cross, not the least of which was his omnipotence.
False gospel. False preacher. False Christian.
