IIt’s no news that modern American Christians are deeply divided on politics — to the point that it can seem like we have more in common with people who share our political beliefs than with our brothers and sisters in faith . This division begs the question: If we all read the same Bible, how can we end up with such divisive and conflict-prone politics? Is our political commitment In fact shaped by Scripture?
Preston Sprinkle’s new book, Exiles: the Church in the shadow of the Empire, challenges American Christians to refocus our politics on the Bible rather than American culture and to base our political identities on our faith rather than our partisanship. Some of his applications of Scripture are questionable, but his altar call is welcome and necessary for the American Church.
A longtime Christian writer and public intellectual, Sprinkle made his name as an orthodox evangelical with unusual positions, including his commitment to Christian nonviolenceher annihilationist vision of Hell, and his approach to questions of sexuality and gender identity. In Exiles, Sprinkle first uses his training as a biblical scholar to explain to readers what Scripture says about how God’s people should live politically, then considers how Christians should apply these lessons in modern America. Today.
The strongest characteristic of Exiles is his call for Christians to question our own political views through careful reading of the Bible. Sprinkle is absolutely right on this point: it is far too easy to assume that our policies are the product of our faith without ever seriously examining them. Sprinkle challenges Christians on the left and right to see how Scripture affirms and opposes parts of their politics:
Social justice. Concern for the poor. Economic controls on the rich. Redistribution of wealth. Debt forgiveness. These are not liberal, Marxist, or “woke” ideals. They come straight out of the Bible. The same goes for other values like small government, limits on centralized power, and able-bodied people working hard and saving for the future. When Christians think about money and economics, we must stop letting the rhetoric and categories of the Babylonian culture wars shape our values. The Bible provides us with rich categories for thinking about these things.
Christians may disagree with its interpretation here and elsewhere. But the most important and most important point Exiles What emerges is that our disagreement must be based on careful exegesis and not partisan instinct.
Biblical advice may not always seem practical, effective, or clever, but as Sprinkle reminds us, the Bible teaches that “things are not always what they seem.” He quotes 1 Corinthians 1:27: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Sprinkle’s willingness to think in scriptural rather than partisan terms is evident when he applies his exegesis to recent political situations and controversies. There’s a lot of good stuff here, especially in his advice to the Church not to seek government solutions to problems that communities can solve themselves. His example of local churches using their own money to cancel medical debt is deeply inspiring and something more congregations should do, regardless of the future of health care policy and insurance.
Unfortunately, this application part is also the weakest part of Exiles. Sprinkle’s message is particularly confusing about whether and how Christians can exercise state power.
He says that whenever the Church has obtained state power, it “never ended well”: “It almost always happens that when the Church becomes too entangled with state power, the kingdom the topsy-turvy side of God is overturned. right side up. Christianity is simply not designed to occupy positions of power in the world without betraying its mission and testimony.
But that comes only a few pages after he praised Martin Luther King Jr. for using state power to end segregation — not just state-enforced inequalities, like schools public or segregated buses, but also private segregation in public schools. restaurants and other public places. Similarly, Sprinkle is skeptical of “working in and through earthly authorities with demonic powers to bring justice to the world”, comparing it to “working with a beast with dragon powers to defeat…the dragon”. Yet he supports the passage of laws prohibiting slavery and segregation and cites with approval King’s observation that “the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.” “.
To be clear, I also support these laws and am also wary of Christians’ lust for power. But his condemnations of state power are so radical and absolute and his criteria for exceptions so vague that he gives the impression of saying: When I don’t like the results, state power is bad, and when I like the results, state power is good. This is not a helpful framework for Christians trying to determine how we should engage in politics. I think it is possible to distinguish between different Christian uses of state power. But this requires a coherent theory of the appropriate scope of governmental authority alongside a theology of Christian engagement in politics and the state. Sprinkle may have such a theory, but he doesn’t explain it here.
Sprinkle’s account of the political tribalism of American Christians is also dubious. He places considerable blame on the “God and country” mentality, which endorses a shared allegiance between Jesus and America as long as Jesus comes first. Sprinkle argues that, in practice, we do not prioritize Jesus and therefore advises eliminating a strong sense of national identity, replacing it with a Christian identity. We can be patriotic, Sprinkle says, but only to the extent that it is a gentle patriotism that does not impose allegiance.
This explanation does not hold up. Sprinkle admits that Christians on both the left and the right are politically tribal, but polls consistently show that Americans on the left are. less likely to claim high levels of patriotism And national pride. If Sprinkle’s analysis is correct, one might expect politically progressive Christians to be less politically tribal – but in fact the opposite is true.
As sociologist George Yancey demonstrates in his book One faith is no moreliberal Christians are more more likely than conservative Christians to put their politics before their faith, use their politics to determine their theology, determine their friend group based on their political tribes, and use “us” and “them” language based on politics rather than theology. As Yancey summarizes in an article about his book for The Gospel Coalition, “political conformity is more important for progressive Christians than for conservative Christians” and “progressive Christians have an underlying value system that leads them to stronger political loyalty than for conservative Christians.” the value system of conservative Christians.”
A better explanation than Sprinkle’s—which works across the political spectrum—is that Christians give more time and attention to our political (and cultural) identity than to our identity in Christ. This is the case with books such as that of James KA Smith. Desire the Kingdom;Transmit the faithby Amy Adamczyk and Christian Smith;The great unchurching by Jim Davis, Michael Graham and Ryan P. Burge; and that of Aaron Renn Life in the negative world. We spend one day a week at church and six at school, work, with friends, and online. Sprinkle alludes to this reality by advising Christians to spend less time watching political talk shows. But he’s more interested in telling American Christians to love America. less than seek Christ more.
Regarding abortion, Sprinkle’s accusation that churches should become “more hospitable and forgiving places for women with unwanted pregnancies” is also disappointing. This is true, as far as it goes. But the work of Christians is missing are already doing has welcome and take care of mothers who might otherwise resort to abortion due to practical and financial difficulties. It neglects the difficulty of reconciling welcome and responsibility in a culture which deals more and more both as mutually exclusive.
And it ignores complex facts, like the fact that higher-income women are more likely resort to abortion, suggesting that lack of financial support from Christians is not the only reason American women choose to have abortions. All of this means that sincere Christians seeking a practical, nonpartisan path forward on abortion will find little practical guidance in Exiles.
Still, Sprinkle’s call for Christians to firmly anchor their political beliefs in the Bible is a laudable call and one that our country desperately needs. It is not necessary for every application to be correct for the general principle to be vital. In fact, I hope this book will spark a wave of exegetical debate about Sprinkle’s ideas. If this refers Christians to the Scriptures, Exiles one could not dream of a more precious heritage.
Joseph Holmes is a Christian culture critic and podcast host living and working in New York. He has written in media such as Forbes, The New York Times, Religion unplugged, RelevantAnd An unexpected diary. He co-hosts a weekly podcast called The overthinkers.
