Politics & Church

Jesus refused to be crowned political king, but his Gospel has profound political implications.

Church-State Separation

According to research from the Pew Research Center (March 2024):

•An overwhelming majority of Americans - 83% - say the government should not declare Christianity the country's official religion.
•Just over half of Americans say the federal government should enforce the separation of church and state (55%).

Christian Nationalism

Christian nationalism is a political ideology that advocates the integration of Christianity into national governance. It is particularly notable in the US, where some proponents claim that the nation was founded specifically by and for Christians.

Christian nationalism is the desire to see a particular expression of Christianity fused with American civic life, with the government sustaining this arrangement.

Academic Research

A 2024 study in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that Christian nationalism - a political theology that seeks to amalgamate Christian faith and a country's political life - relates to attacks against religious minorities.

Nilay Saiya, in The Global Politics of Jesus: A Christian Case for Church-State Separation (Oxford, 2022), suggests that where Christianity has to compete on an equal footing with other religions, we see Christianity growing and prospering. This is the 'paradox of privilege' - in contexts where Christianity is favored by the state, it ends up declining.

Neither Left nor Right

The Kingdom of God challenges all human ideologies:

•Challenges the right by demanding justice for the poor and welcoming foreigners.
•Challenges the left by defending the sacredness of life and sexual morality.

Citizens of Two Kingdoms

Christians must be good citizens and seek the good of the city (Jeremiah 29), but their ultimate loyalty is to Christ. When the State demands what belongs to God, civil disobedience is a Christian duty (Acts 5:29).

Academic Sources

•Saiya, Nilay. The Global Politics of Jesus. Oxford University Press, 2022.
•Pew Research - Religion
•Britannica - Christianity: Church and State Relations