RICHMOND, Va. — Former Obama administration official Michael Wear spoke with the Christian Post about a variety of issues related to the current political climate in the United States, including his views on the term Christian nationalism and the role of churches in political discourse.
Founder and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, Wear was the keynote speaker at an event Thursday evening at the nondenominational Hill City Church titled “The Spirit of Our Politics.”
The event is named after Wear’s most recent book, published last month, titled The spirit of our policy: spiritual formation and renovation of public life.
About 150 people attended the event, sponsored by three Richmond-based Christian groups: Needle’s Eye Ministries, For Richmond and Richmond Christian Leadership Initiative.
“Politics is causing great spiritual harm, and the main reason is that Americans, including many Christians, are turning to politics to have their spiritual needs met,” Wear told those gathered.
“Our politics do a lot of harm materially and spiritually, and if this is to change, it is essential that we recognize the ways in which our politics are excluded. If we were a different people, our politics would be different. I want to talk to you this evening about the space policy that space policy occupies in your life.
During his remarks, Wear spoke about “political sorting churches,” or congregations that intentionally seek out members and attendees who subscribe to their politics.
When asked by CP how such churches could change direction, Wear responded that “different things happen in different churches” because sometimes a church may “actively pursue a strategy of attracting people on the basis of political opinions, and I don’t agree.” I’m sure my advice will come in handy there.
Wear believes that “we must have a view of politics that is not above the gospel or outside and unrelated to the gospel, but a view of politics that is within and under the gospel “.
“Jesus needs to be at the center of our churches, and when Jesus is at the center, Jesus naturally attracts people of all kinds of opinions and backgrounds,” he added.
Democrats and a “post-Christian” campaign
In 2018, at an event hosted by the Georgetown University Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Wear critical Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for running a “post-Christian” campaign that didn’t do enough to attract faith-based voters.
“I had heard from someone close to the Clinton campaign that one of their top advisers was bragging about running the first post-Christian campaign,” Wear said in 2018.
“It’s a great strategy, except that 70% of Americans consider themselves Christian. Maybe it’s an ambition from their point of view, but what kind of data-driven campaign looks at a country… and says we’re going to run the first post-Christian campaign? A loser.
When asked by CP if he thought President Joe Biden would also run a post-Christian re-election campaign, Wear responded, “I don’t think Biden did that in 2020, and we’ll see what happens in 2024.”
Wear noted that the 2020 Biden campaign “took place in a world in which they were attentive to the role of religion in American life,” while the 2016 Clinton campaign “appears to have a proactive strategy that required ignore religion.
“I will say that I think Biden has seen a significant improvement over Clinton’s support among evangelicals. I think it is always more difficult to maintain such improvement after re-election for a number of reasons,” he continued.
Christian nationalism
CP asked Wear for his opinion on Christian nationalism, whether he thought it was a real political and spiritual threat to America or whether it was simply a derogatory term aimed at slandering conservative Christians.
“I think it depends on what Christian nationalism you’re talking about,” he said, adding that “there are a range of definitions” used by different people.
“Christian nationalism is being used by some to implement the same political arguments that we have used for the last 30 to 40 years,” Wear said. “But I think there’s a way in which the term identifies what I think is a fairly fringe group that doesn’t even necessarily practice Christianity, but exploits religious symbols, rhetoric, to promote political violence, for example. example, and that’s what concerns me.
Wear added that using the label Christian nationalism to describe people has “become counterproductive,” saying the term “has become so misused.”
“I refuse to cede the label of “Christian” to a movement that some supporters of this term want to attribute to people who would stand up and applaud when a a politician says to them: “I know Jesus teaches to love your enemies, but don’t try that in politics,” Wear said.
“I’m not going to call a group of people who stand up and applaud because the teachings of Jesus don’t hold up in real life Christian nationalists. There are other terms to use for this group.
He added that “to the extent that Christian nationalism must be rejected, the problem is not that it is too Christian, but that it is not Christian enough.”
“It’s not oriented toward the good of our neighbors, toward the good of our public, and therefore it’s not Christian in its character,” Wear said.
When asked what he hoped Hill City attendees would take away from his speech, Wear said he wanted them to know “that the kind of people we are has a lot to do with the kind of politics that we have and that spiritual formation is essential to civic renewal. .”
“The way of Jesus is viable in public life,” Wear said. “We can trust Jesus. »
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