Daniel K. Williams - The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2021 Daniel K. Williams

All rights reserved

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN 978-0-8028-7851-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Williams, Daniel K., author.

Title: The politics of the cross : a Christian alternative to partisanship / Daniel K. Williams.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: A theologically and historically informed treatise on a Christian approach to politics that foregrounds the priorities of Gods kingdom instead of blind partisan loyaltyProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020033822 | ISBN 9780802878519 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Christianity and politics.

Classification: LCC BR115.P7 W55 2021 | DDC 261.70973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033822

Biblical quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.

This book would not have been possible without the encouragement of my wife, Nadya, and the assistance of many friends and colleagues in the Christian academic world who reviewed early drafts of this manuscript and offered helpful feedback. I am especially grateful to Jonathan den Hartog, Karen Johnson, Kelly Kapic, Andy Lewis, Bruce Lowe, Ethan Schrum, and John Wilsey for taking the time to read part or all of the manuscript and sending me their comments. The discussions that I had with these readers helped me avoid numerous pitfalls and prompted me to sharpen or nuance some of my arguments. Three pastors from Kings Chapel Presbyterian ChurchAndrew Hendley, Andy Woznicki, and Ben Weberalso read the manuscript and offered their encouragement and suggestions. I am grateful to my editor at Eerdmans, David Bratt, for his support of the project from the beginning. Needless to say, my colleagues and friends who read early drafts of the manuscript cannot be held responsible for the political views and historical and biblical interpretations that I offerlet alone any errors that remain in the textbut their thoughtful suggestions made this book much stronger.

Im thankful to Nadya for encouraging me to write this book and then sacrificing some of her own activities so that I could have the time to write in the midst of our busy teaching schedule and family life.

The opportunity to write this book was a door that God opened for me, and I pray that God will be glorified in this endeavor. Writing about Gods will is always a dangerous undertaking because of the magnitude and seriousness of the matter and because of our own fallibility. I pray that my efforts to apply scriptural principles to contemporary politics will lead other Christians to become more effective witnesses of the gospel, but if I have erred in my scriptural exegesis or analysis of our current political situation, I pray that the Lord will keep this book from leading others astray. In any case, I am thankful to the Lord for giving me the time, resources, and opportunity to complete this project. I have enjoyed the work, and I pray that God will use the end result for good.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will ishis good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:3540

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Mark 8:34

In September 2018, bestselling evangelical author and New York City Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller wrote an op-ed for the New York Times on the question of how Christians should think about politics. Eighty-one percent of white evangelical voters had cast their ballots for the Republican presidential candidate in the previous election, and white evangelicals were viewed as perhaps the only firewall that could stop a Democratic blue wave in the

Kellers gospel-centered denunciation of Christian partisanship was hardly new, even if it might have seemed novel to a few secular readers who thought of evangelical Christianity and the Republican Party as almost synonymous. Evangelical leaders, along with Christian academics and political activists, have been issuing warnings about the dangers of the Christian Rights alliance with the GOP for years. In the last decade or so, evangelical critiques of Christian Right partisanship have included Charles D. Drews Surprised by Community: Republicans and Democrats in the Same Pew (2019), John Feas Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump (2018), Philip Yanceys Christians and Politics: Uneasy Partners (2012), Amy E. Blacks Honoring God in Red or Blue (2012), Benjamin P. Dixons God Is Not a Republican (2012), and Lisa Sharon Harpers Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican or Democrat (2008). And these are only the latest contributions to a long-standing genre. In previous decades, Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, and other progressive evangelicals critiqued Christian Right partisanship from the left, while politically conservative defectors from the Christian Right, such as Ed Dobson, Cal Thomas, and David Kuo, cautioned evangelicals, in books such as Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Cant Save America (1999) and Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (2006), against trusting the Republican Party to carry out Gods agenda. As early as the 1980s, Charles Colsonhimself an experienced political operative and a sympathizer with much of the Christian Rights agendawarned in Kingdoms in Conflict that Gods kingdom and the state were fundamentally different entities that often pursued opposing goals.

But despite all the warnings, white evangelical loyalty to the Republican Party has steadily increased during the past twenty years, and the Christian Right, despite numerous predictions of its demise, is still alive and well. At

After an election in which 81 percent of my white coreligionists supported Trump, the faith that has been my home for 20 years seems foreign, even hostile, former Christianity Today managing editor Katelyn Beaty wrote in the Washington Post. Trumps electionespecially because it occurred only because of strong support from her fellow white evangelicalsbrought her waves of grief and felt something like soul abandonment. She wondered whether it was now time for her to leave the table.

If Beaty was sure that Trump did not represent her valuesvalues that she held as a follower of Jesusother Christians were certain that Trump was the man of Gods choosing. It seemed evident to us on election night that the Lord gave us victory,