Don't Put Your Hope in Politics (with Nathanael Blake)

MUSIC Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. If we thought the extreme polarization in our nation over the past few years was a temporary state, it's starting to sink in that this is most definitely a marathon and not a sprint.

Disturbingly, the meanness has even infected the church with a capital C. Even people who profess to be Christians seem to believe that the correct political leader or important political wins are worth any price. But today's guest argues that many of those who are investing their hearts and hopes in politics are looking for things that politics cannot give them. We're joined by Dr. Nathaniel Blake with the Ethics and Public Policy Center to hear more about the challenge he issued to this year's graduates in a recent Federalist article entitled Advice to the Class of 2025.

Never put your hope in earthly kingdoms. Sounds like great advice. Dr. Nathaniel Blake, welcome to Family Policy Matters. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you for writing this.

It sounds so timely. So start off with how did you think we came to a place where so many of us tie our personal perspectives about life to political candidates and outcomes? Well, I think there are a variety of reasons and they aren't all bad. For instance, politics is important and politics can even be entertaining and it can be fun to, you know, root for your politician like a sports team.

But that can also easily combine. One, we can lose perspective and two, those can easily combine with other more malignant aspects of our characters where we start to enjoy seeing people be defeated, not merely winning. But we instead prefer just to watch our enemies suffer or we give up on achieving much good. But we just enjoy the anger and the sense of power that that can give us as we participate in politics. There's a lot of different reasons, but ultimately I would say they all come back to a lack of something better in people's lives.

We'll talk about that a little bit then. So they're seeking something then that they're missing in their lives by investing so heavily in politics? Oftentimes, I think so. People may be lonely.

Americans are very lonely right now. Politics can give you a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose and enemies, as well as comrades. And likewise, it can give people something to spend their time, a hobby. So it gives people things and these aren't bad things per se, except usually there's something better. There's a better hobby.

There's a better way to serve than yelling at people on the Internet. You talked in your article to graduates, but are those the people that are lonely or do you think that we all have a tendency to be more that way? I think that it's broad throughout American culture. You look at surveys and you'll certainly see that today's graduates are generally less social than graduates of the past.

And we can blame social media and things of that nature. But throughout America, people are less likely to be married, which is one of the main ways that humans experience companionship. They're less likely to be in church, church attendance.

It's not declining as much, thankfully, but it's flat lined from what I can tell. So these sources of civic participation, likewise. So all these sources of meaning, of companionship have declined or they're at best holding steady for most people.

And consequently, people are looking to fill that void in their lives. Well, talk about America's relationship between faith and politics. How does that contribute to the intensity of what we're seeing? So there are several different factors at play here. One is that as segments of our politics have become increasingly irreligious, increasingly post-Christian, that has increased some of the moral divides that we see on hot button issues from abortion to gender ideology.

So that's one factor. But another factor is that a lot of people who would still identify as religious are not particularly observant. They're not going to church much, if at all.

They're not very active in their churches. And so for them, political affiliation or religious affiliation might be somewhat synonymous where I'm an evangelical Christian because I'm a Republican or vice versa, instead of Christianity being at the core of an identity and then the political developing out of that. And I think one of the results of both of these elements is that people are less forgiving and less charitable because Christianity teaches us that we are to love our enemies, we are to pray for them. And it teaches us that we are to try to win converts, that we want to persuade people that ours is a better way of life in this world, following God's law and the created order where we are to live now, but also that it prepares us ultimately for life with God and union between the church and Christ in heaven.

So if you don't have that perspective, it's much easier to be, I think, or if you're forgetting that perspective, you become harsher, become more judgmental and critical. Whereas Christians know that even the worst sinners can be redeemed, thankfully, for all of us. So I want to revisit the one thing that you said, because I like the way you made that point about how Christians and sometimes I'm just baffled. I see people on X in particular in the way they talk, you know, and they say they're Christians in their profile.

And I'm like, how is that even possible? So what you're saying is that the people are political first, that they're, say, Republicans first. And because they're Republicans, they identify as evangelicals, as opposed to want the evangelical being an evangelical Christian or a Christian informing and maybe persuading them in their politics. So talk about that a little more. I think that's a really good point. Well, I think it works both ways. I think you do have people who identify as a Christian, but have not been well formed, well discipled, well catechized.

So that's certainly one element. But unfortunately, and this is something we all struggle with, I suspect, especially if you're arguing politics on social media, is our sin natures do not go away. We are still in the process of sanctification. So even people who are trying with God's grace to live out their Christian lives can still fall into these sinful traps of putting politics before our witnesses Christians, of putting politics before our Christian lives, and so on.

So it works both ways there, I think. And ultimately, the answer is not to give up on politics or to abandon it, but to always return to God first and then to have our political actions flow from God's love working through us for the care of our communities and our nation. You're listening to Family Policy Matters, a weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. This is just one of the many ways NC Family works to educate and inform citizens about issues that impact faith and family here in North Carolina.

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That's at NC Family Policy. Is it as simple as go read your Bible? Probably the answer to that is yes, but are there some organizations or some other ways that people can inform themselves so they're bringing more of their biblical perspective to politics? Go read your Bible is great advice. And it's hard a lot of times to do what we know we should, but it really is simple. Read your Bible, pray, go to church, get involved in your church, love your family, take care of your family.

All of these seemingly simple bits of advice, one, they take a lot of effort, they can be hard to live out, but they are also the means to a more fulfilling, a deeper and richer life. And I think there are a lot of organizations that direct us towards that. But I would start by saying, start with your church. And if your church is not doing enough here, well, maybe start a new ministry in your church if you can. Obviously, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, we're concerned about these issues. I think of other organizations that work on worldview, from the Colson Center to various Catholic groups to RUF, Reformed University Fellowship on college campuses. There's a lot of great groups out there trying to work on these issues.

But I really think that it starts with your local body of believers and your family, and try to work there, as well as your own spiritual life. Right. Of course, the other extreme is Christians or people who just go, it's just too messy. There's no way to not get sullied by entering the fray. So I'm just staying out of it all together. And that can create some problems as well.

Are you proposing a balance? Yes, and I'm obviously involved in politics in terms of writing about politics and policies quite a bit. So I'm certainly not urging anyone to a quiescence, but I am urging people to perspective that is focused first on God and his kingdom, and also to remember that the weapons of this world are not how we win primarily. We don't win through hatred. We don't win through manipulation. We instead win by using the power of the gospel, because ultimately it is the gospel that transforms hearts and lives and changes people and changes cultures. So yes, politics has a place. Governments are ordained by God to encourage good and suppress evil.

All of that is true. Christians should be involved in politics, but ultimately we are not looking to the kingdoms of this world for our hope. I'm glad you mentioned hope because we've already talked about some of the reasons for Americans maybe putting a wrong emphasis on politics. And you mentioned loneliness, you mentioned addiction to anger and a sense of power, but you also see a loss of hope. So talk about that a little bit.

Why is that an important contributor? In terms of hope in this life, we do have a lot of people who don't see the promise for the good things of this life coming their way and have given up on that. It can then be cyclical where the more you despair, the harder it is to actually accomplish or achieve or pursue some of these things. And Christianity then says, well, the good things of this world are good.

God made them to be good. He made the world good. But it also reminds us, one, that the world has fallen and two, that there is a renewal of this world that we are promised where ultimately our deepest longings will be fulfilled by God himself. And so keeping that perspective in mind, and it's difficult, I forget all the time, but keeping that eternal perspective allows us to be more patient and loving in this world while also holding out hope for the next. And of course, then the more we emulate Christ in this life, the more we are sanctified, the more hope there is in this life as well. Tell us about how we can live with kind of a balancing act between wanting to seek justice, which of course the Bible commands us to do, but also having to live with injustice, right? Because we can't fix everything. So how do we reconcile that in our brains as believers in particular?

It's difficult. I certainly don't have it fully figured out, but I think ultimately it comes from looking to Christ and his sacrifice for us and remembering that it was for us, that Christ died because of my sins, and that therefore, when I look at my political opponents, I want them to be saved. I want them to know Christ. I want them to have a deeper relationship with Christ. And if I keep that perspective, I think then it becomes easier to both see the injustice of the world around us, the injustice that put Jesus on the cross, while at the same time recognizing our own place as sinners who are desperately in need of God's grace, and then to try to reach out to the world with love as well as with judgment, which again is necessary.

It is part of government's divinely ordained role. Thank you very much. We're just about out of time for this week. Before we go though, Nathaniel Blake, is there anything else from your article in exhortation to these graduating classes that you would like to end with for us today? Looking beyond this world, to the God who was incarnate entered into this world, to suffer for it, to draw it to himself, doing that is a source of hope and consolation and renewal. Our sufferings in this life can be sanctified, and our joys can be increased as we look to God for our hope both in this life and in the life to come.

All right. Well, thank you so much for that hopeful and encouraging message, one that we all need to hear for sure now and then. Dr. Nathaniel Blake with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, thank you so much for being with us today on Family Policy Matters. at NCFamily.org. That's NCFamily.org. And check us out on social media at NC Family Policy. Thanks, and may God bless you and your family.