How Should Christians Respond to the Republican Party’s New Pride Coalition?
Nov 19, 2021 by David Fowler
I was an elected Republican. I will vote for a particular Republican candidate over a Democrat assuming I choose to vote in that candidate’s race at all. But how should Christians respond to the recent news that the Republican National Committee (or at least its Chair) announced a coalition with a “politically conservative” Gay Pride organization? Here’s my answer.
So far, the only responses I have seen or been asked to be part of come from politically conservative Christians and similarly labeled political organizations. So far, the response appears to have been primarily political in nature, e.g., after the Virginia elections, Republicans could have taken back political power, and this will alienate a lot of the Christian conservative base.
I understand the reasoning: Republican candidates are more likely to enact into law the policy proposals of Christian political organizations than Democrats.
And to me, therein lies the problem: Christians and Christian policy organizations seem to depend on the Republican Party to get what they want, and the Republican Party depends on Christian political conservatives not to lose to Democrats. It is a political high stakes game for both sides. I also used to think too much that way.
But increasingly I have begun to put under the microscope of Scripture what such a concern for the political health of the Republican Party says about Christians and, more importantly, about God. Here are a few of my thoughts:
Here are other questions I ask myself as a person some consider to be a Christian policy leader:
I also think there may be one other thing Christians and Christian legal and policy organizations should consider, namely, whether we any longer hold any moral high ground from which to speak any condemning words to the Party on this subject.
Since 2015, when the United States Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment made unenforceable state laws that allowed marriage licenses to be issued only to a man and woman, the response of most professing Christians and Christian political organizations has been zero in terms of giving any thought to or doing anything toward reversing or limiting that decision.
But how could silence be their response when the predicate for the Court’s whole analysis was this statement, found in the first sentence of its opinion:
How can such a statement be met by Christians with such near-universal silence in the fields of law and politics, and yet a Republican Party that follows the crowd in search of voters is now a problem for Christians?
On what moral authority do we stand politically when we have stood by and accepted for six years the fundamental substance and worldview premise of Obergefell, namely, human identity can be found independent of the God in whose image we have been made?
Before attacking an avowedly non-Christian partisan political organization for considering which “camp” will, in the years to come, best help it garner the most electoral votes—politically conservative Christians or fiscally conservative and financially strong and motivated members of the LGBT community—I think Christians need to clean up their own house and their response to rulings like Obergefell.
If constitutional liberty is now defined as being freed from the created biological categories of male and female and what they mean to human flourishing, then is not the Republican Party seeking to uphold the constitutional promise of liberty? I don’t understand why Christians are focused on the Republican Party’s electoral strategy rather than the new understanding of constitutional liberty and the human person that is feeding the trend in Republican politics.
I increasingly think many Christian political leaders are more worried about the future of the Republican Party than leaving in place Obergefell’s constitutional understanding of liberty and what it means to be human as a guide for all future civial and constitutional law.
I also think this kind of partisan political party harping negatively impacts our credibility as Christians in the eyes of the world. I believe many non-Christians will see this as mere moralism, because they don’t see us talking about the glory and honor of God in the larger, more fundamental political and legal context.
Maybe I’m mixing too much God with politics for some, but I firmly believe, as I wrote last week, that if the focus and priorities of Christians in relation to politics and law don’t change, we will meet the same fate that is soon to be that of the Republican Party—the judgment of God.
David Fowler served in the Tennessee state Senate for 12 years before joining FACT as President in 2006.
So far, the only responses I have seen or been asked to be part of come from politically conservative Christians and similarly labeled political organizations. So far, the response appears to have been primarily political in nature, e.g., after the Virginia elections, Republicans could have taken back political power, and this will alienate a lot of the Christian conservative base.
I understand the reasoning: Republican candidates are more likely to enact into law the policy proposals of Christian political organizations than Democrats.
And to me, therein lies the problem: Christians and Christian policy organizations seem to depend on the Republican Party to get what they want, and the Republican Party depends on Christian political conservatives not to lose to Democrats. It is a political high stakes game for both sides. I also used to think too much that way.
But increasingly I have begun to put under the microscope of Scripture what such a concern for the political health of the Republican Party says about Christians and, more importantly, about God. Here are a few of my thoughts:
1.) For all Christians, the fundamental purpose of all things is the glory of God, not the well-being of the Republican Party, particularly as the instrument needed by Christians to enact public policy.
Jesus did not come to build the Republican Party, but a church (Matthew 16:18) as part of the beginning of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21), bringing Heaven and Earth under one new head of a new humanity (Ephesians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49). Those new people, as part of this restoration for the glory of God may well organize for the sake of righteous public policy, but the Republican Party is not the church nor is expanding the Kingdom of God its purpose.
2.) Related to the preceding observation, the Republican Party may be an instrumental means God uses to providentially direct public policy to His eternal ends, but it is never the final cause.
That final and ultimate cause of all things is God (Romans 11:36), and we look to God first and foremost. All the salvation we and our nation need is from God (Psalm 3:8, 68:20, Revelation 7:10) because God alone can make us righteous (Romans 4:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and righteousness alone exalts a nation (Proverbs 14:34).
3.) Is the “judgment” that Christians want the Republican Party and its leaders to fear most electoral losses to Democrats or God (and the same could be said of what those in the Democratic Party should fear most)?
Scripture says that it is God who raises up one and puts down another (Jeremiah 18:7-10), and the apparent power of those in politics in the eyes of others does not mean they are pleasing to God (consider King Omri and his son Ahab who together reigned powerfully over Israel for more than 30 years yet God said were wicked [1 Kings 16:25; Micah 6:16] and Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, [Daniel 4:30-33].
Jesus did not come to build the Republican Party, but a church (Matthew 16:18) as part of the beginning of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21), bringing Heaven and Earth under one new head of a new humanity (Ephesians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49). Those new people, as part of this restoration for the glory of God may well organize for the sake of righteous public policy, but the Republican Party is not the church nor is expanding the Kingdom of God its purpose.
2.) Related to the preceding observation, the Republican Party may be an instrumental means God uses to providentially direct public policy to His eternal ends, but it is never the final cause.
That final and ultimate cause of all things is God (Romans 11:36), and we look to God first and foremost. All the salvation we and our nation need is from God (Psalm 3:8, 68:20, Revelation 7:10) because God alone can make us righteous (Romans 4:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and righteousness alone exalts a nation (Proverbs 14:34).
3.) Is the “judgment” that Christians want the Republican Party and its leaders to fear most electoral losses to Democrats or God (and the same could be said of what those in the Democratic Party should fear most)?
Scripture says that it is God who raises up one and puts down another (Jeremiah 18:7-10), and the apparent power of those in politics in the eyes of others does not mean they are pleasing to God (consider King Omri and his son Ahab who together reigned powerfully over Israel for more than 30 years yet God said were wicked [1 Kings 16:25; Micah 6:16] and Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, [Daniel 4:30-33].
Here are other questions I ask myself as a person some consider to be a Christian policy leader:
-What is the thing I fear if the Republican Party diminishes in its perceived power and influence?
-Can that diminution of partisan political power diminish the power of God by which He holds all things together (Colossians 1:17) or His glory (1 Peter 4:11, 5:10)?
-Might God need to humiliate, debase, and bring an end to the Republican Party so His people who may depend too much on it will look more Him and find in Him all they really desire both in Heaven and on earth (Psalm 73:25)? I think these are worthy questions for self-examination before publicly condemning the Republican Party.
-Can that diminution of partisan political power diminish the power of God by which He holds all things together (Colossians 1:17) or His glory (1 Peter 4:11, 5:10)?
-Might God need to humiliate, debase, and bring an end to the Republican Party so His people who may depend too much on it will look more Him and find in Him all they really desire both in Heaven and on earth (Psalm 73:25)? I think these are worthy questions for self-examination before publicly condemning the Republican Party.
I also think there may be one other thing Christians and Christian legal and policy organizations should consider, namely, whether we any longer hold any moral high ground from which to speak any condemning words to the Party on this subject.
Have We Lost Our Moral High Ground?
Since 2015, when the United States Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment made unenforceable state laws that allowed marriage licenses to be issued only to a man and woman, the response of most professing Christians and Christian political organizations has been zero in terms of giving any thought to or doing anything toward reversing or limiting that decision.
But how could silence be their response when the predicate for the Court’s whole analysis was this statement, found in the first sentence of its opinion:
The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity.
How can such a statement be met by Christians with such near-universal silence in the fields of law and politics, and yet a Republican Party that follows the crowd in search of voters is now a problem for Christians?
On what moral authority do we stand politically when we have stood by and accepted for six years the fundamental substance and worldview premise of Obergefell, namely, human identity can be found independent of the God in whose image we have been made?
Before attacking an avowedly non-Christian partisan political organization for considering which “camp” will, in the years to come, best help it garner the most electoral votes—politically conservative Christians or fiscally conservative and financially strong and motivated members of the LGBT community—I think Christians need to clean up their own house and their response to rulings like Obergefell.
If constitutional liberty is now defined as being freed from the created biological categories of male and female and what they mean to human flourishing, then is not the Republican Party seeking to uphold the constitutional promise of liberty? I don’t understand why Christians are focused on the Republican Party’s electoral strategy rather than the new understanding of constitutional liberty and the human person that is feeding the trend in Republican politics.
Conclusion
I increasingly think many Christian political leaders are more worried about the future of the Republican Party than leaving in place Obergefell’s constitutional understanding of liberty and what it means to be human as a guide for all future civial and constitutional law.
I also think this kind of partisan political party harping negatively impacts our credibility as Christians in the eyes of the world. I believe many non-Christians will see this as mere moralism, because they don’t see us talking about the glory and honor of God in the larger, more fundamental political and legal context.
Maybe I’m mixing too much God with politics for some, but I firmly believe, as I wrote last week, that if the focus and priorities of Christians in relation to politics and law don’t change, we will meet the same fate that is soon to be that of the Republican Party—the judgment of God.
David Fowler served in the Tennessee state Senate for 12 years before joining FACT as President in 2006.
