Politics is important. But it is not all important. That is not just a modern phenomenon. It has always been so. Many who live and die by the electoral sword will certainly be shocked to discover that most of the headline-making events in the political realm today will go down in the annals of time as mere backdrops to the real drama of everyday banalities.
As much emphasis as is placed on campaigns, primaries, elections, administrations, polls, and policies these days, most of us know full well that the import of fellow workers, next door neighbors, close friends, and family members is actually far greater. Despite all the hype, hoopla, and hysteria of sensational turns of events, the affairs of ordinary people who tend their gardens and raise their children and perfect their trades and mind their businesses are, in the end, more important. Just as they always have been. Just as they always will be. That is one of the great lessons of history.
As a result, many of us, particularly those of us who are professing Christians, feel more than a little disconnected from the hubbub of politics. As political analyst E.J. Dionne has quipped, “Typically Americans view politics with boredom and detachment. For most of us, politics is increasingly abstract, a spectator sport barely worth watching.” He says that since the average voter “believes that politics will do little to improve his life or that of his community, he votes defensively,” if at all.
As odd as it may seem, that kind of nonchalant detachment is actually close to what the Founding Fathers originally intended. They feared ongoing political passions and thus tried to construct a system that minimized the impact of factions, parties, and activists. Citizens of the Republic were expected to turn out at the polls to vote for men of good character and broad vision and then pretty much forget about politics until the next election. Suspicious of professional politicians as well as the inevitable corruption of special interest groups, the Founders established a system of checks and balances designed to depoliticize the arena of statecraft and its attendant statesmanship.
In times of fractiousness and distress, however, American Christians have always risen to the challenge of rekindling the fires of freedom. In the face of impending disaster, the collapse of moral resolve, the encroachment of abusive power, and the abnegation of liberty, they committed their lives and their fortunes to the process of political restoration. They proved that one of the great ironies of the American system is that there are times when politics must be treated as a matter of some consequence so that it ceases to be treated as a matter of total consequence.
We are living in just such a time of clear and present danger—to our marriages, to our children, to our neighborhoods, to our culture. For our great experiment in liberty to survive, our voices must be heard. For revival, renewal, and restoration to sweep across our land, it will have to be those of us who actually believe in revival, renewal, and restoration to make it happen. This is what it means to love our neighbors. We who desire what is right and true to prevail once again must declare before a watching and listening world what is right and good and true once again. Why vote? This is why we vote.
Let’s pray that American Christians are ready for a return to the quiet certainty that while politics is important, it is not all important. Sometimes political involvement has to take precedence in our lives in order to ensure that political involvement does not take preeminence over our lives. Eternal optimist that I am, I hold to the age-old notion that what we have done, we can do again.
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