The Difference between Churches and Politics

A lot of folk when they think about churches and politics is that they are just the two things you are not supposed to talk about, but that there are big differences between. The stereotype being the politics is down and dirty playing and churches are to be filled with truth and light and good feeling. In truth, at least truth in my opinion after years in the church is, there just isn’t much difference.

One of the things my new wife of the time, Doreen, noticed after we got married and she became more aware of the inner workings of the church was just how political it can be (not in a favorable sense) and how mean folk can act towards each other. It was a sad but accurate realization. I’ve also known pastors who entered the ministry feeling that the church would be rather like their mother who would constantly give them pats on the back and tell them what good little pastors they were. The reality was such a shock for many they left the ministry and perhaps the church. Ah, such is life and I am sure it is true for many other occupations as well.

So, where is the hope that keeps folk involved in each of these institutions? For some, perhaps most, hope for politicians acting truly as public service in our country is a lost vision. It is also likely true for every type of government. The best government is has been said to be a beneficent dictator. A dictator can work much more quickly than any other form of government and of the dictator really wants the best for their people who they seek to serve, they can do it well. This is followed up with the old saying, “Power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely.”*

Churches while they may appear happy joyous praisers of God, can show their true colors if someone sits in “their pew” or if the preacher picks a hymn they don’t like. Preachers in churches are generally loved their first year in a pastorate, the honeymoon period, embraced for the next two and then become regarded as personal chaplains of members of the congregation who eat roast preacher as their usual Sunday faire as well as other days. The big fights in the church are generally over the color of new carpet, who sings a solo and when or where, or whether the pastor’s spouse dresses and acts appropriately in the eyes of the beholder; they will always be found lacking someway. Church often don’t give a rip over really important issues such as how to be the best disciples of Jesus they can be and how they can witness the good news the best to their neighbors.

What politicians and preachers usually share in common is a big ego. They wouldn’t go for the job otherwise. And big egos often cause problems.

But this is the major difference I see between churches and governments. In government the highest authority and the greatest source of hope is the greatness of the human spirit to do the right thing. Thus the delusions that totally free markets will produce the best products and the best prices for all, which never works. It is as delusional and Marx who saw socialism as a mean for the human spirit dominating after of period so that the “state would wither away” and there would be in essence no government called communism just totally altruistic people doing the best thing for the common good (not unlike the views of some first century churches.) I believe such thinking is delusional, that at base, human nature is self-centered and so competitive that individuals and groups are always trying to get more of the pie and take parts of the pie away from others. I may have humanistic tendencies, but I am pessimistic about human nature. In religion we call that a belief in human depravity, total depravity.

Now I see church operating in the same way as other human institutions that are subject to that same human selfishness and the effort to get our own way at the expense of others, even at the expense of the total church. Church people are no better or no worse than any other people. But I am hopeful about the church not because of the people but because of God. This God I see as witnessed to in scripture and history as one who is madly and passionately in love with people and guides and directs them so they will never be able to completely do away with themselves. Thus this egocentric retired pastor is optimistic because he believes in a beneficent God who loves us and will not let us come to total harm. Governments may come and go but the covenants (promises) of God remain and can be relied upon.

I am a patriotic American who hopes for the best for our country but I do not believe God loves us any better than any other country or will protect us at the expense of others. But the church will endure in any governmental system no matter how that government sees the church.

That may be delusional. It also may be the truth. Believe as you are led.

*John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: