Nurturing Faith Journal Preview: “Up to God, Out to All”

Editor’s Note: The following will appear in the May/June 2024 issue of Nurturing Faith Journal.

In his epilogue to Peter Storey’s collection of sermons, With God in the Crucible, William Willimon quotes the prophetic counsel that Storey’s father once gave the younger Pastor Storey, “Everything begins in theology and ends in politics.”

For those of us who grew up on the old Baptist mantra that “The church must be a politics-free zone,” the elder Storey’s counsel is nearly as unsettling as Richard Rohr’s similar declaration, “There is no such thing as non-political Christianity.”

If by “politics-free zone,” my Baptist mentors meant “partisanship-free zone,” then their caution was wise. Many who come to our churches wade all week in the polarizing, partisan vitriol of cable news and social media, both of which need to be left at the curb when we gather for the worship of God and the welcome of all.

However, if my Baptist forebears meant that the church should “stay out of politics” by avoiding the moral justice issues of the day, then that would constitute a failure on the part of the church—the kind of failure Martin Luther King, Jr. so memorably captured in that surgical sentence: “Our life begins to end the day we fall silent about things that matter.” This is true for institutions as well as individuals.

The pressing social justice issues of our time call us to speak the truth concerning where Jesus would stand on those issues if Jesus were here. In most cases, this is not a mystery. To read the four gospels prayerfully and mindfully is to come to clarity concerning where Jesus would stand on many social justice issues of our time.

I don’t have the policy answers to all social justice issues. But it isn’t hard to know where Jesus would stand on many of them. If the four gospels are a trustworthy record of the words and works of Jesus, then it seems clear that Jesus would confront the sins of white supremacy and xenophobia, find a way to welcome migrants with compassion, stand up for the dignity of all persons without regard for any human difference, and work for equal access to healthcare for all.

I’m not saying Jesus would be a Democrat or a Republican. Jesus would be Jesus–the same Jesus who said that nothing matters more than treating everyone as we wish to be treated (Matthew 7:12) and that what matters most is to love God with all we have and love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).

Advocating for others as we would want them to advocate for us is not partisan or political. It is righteous and just. Contending for more equitable policy for the most marginalized is not “red” or “blue,” but moral, right, and true.

In my work in Alabama with Together for Hope, we advocate for healthcare access and equity, hoping to close the healthcare coverage gap for more than 200,000 working Alabamians. We don’t do this because we are ideologically progressive, but because we have made a spiritual decision to follow Jesus.

Across the centuries, institutional Christianity has made Jesus primarily about a problem– condemnation, and a solution–atonement. But the Jesus of the four gospels was primarily concerned with life, how to live it, and love and how to give it. This is at the heart of Richard Rohr’s and the elder Storey’s words about politics.

In Mr. Storey’s words, “the theology where everything begins” is vertical–loving God with everything. “Politics where everything ends” is horizontal–loving all others as you wish to be loved.”

This is the up-to-God, out-to-all, cross-shaped life we were baptized into.