Getting Involved in Politics – The Law of God and Public Policy

Getting Involved in Politics
The Law of God and Public Policy

All believers are called to political involvement at some level.

But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10

Direct involvement in politics is a many-faceted endeavor. All believers can participate in some ways, while others will be set apart by the Lord for a more dedicated calling to public service.

Involvement in the political arena begins with prayer and is sustained by prayer, for all participants in the process (1 Tim. 2:1-8; cf. 1 Sam. 12:23). Here every believer can and should be active. We shall have more to say about this in a subsequent installment, so I will let this suffice for now.

Beyond prayer, however, believers should not scorn opportunities to serve in voluntary ways for those candidates and parties whose platforms reflect or are agreeable to Biblical teaching. Here again abundant opportunities exist for all believers to assist those whose views and policies most tend in the direction of the goodness of God. Visit the website or contact the local office of your chosen party or official and offer to help in any way you can. At the very least, this will open up opportunities for conversation, and you may be able to play a role in helping to expedite or even shape the views of the official you serve. Volunteering in the political process can help you to gain a better sense of how politics works and all that’s involved in making public policy.

Further, some believers will hear a call to stand for public office or to serve on the staff of a public official, and they must look to the Lord and one another for help in preparing for and taking up such a responsibility. Seek the advice of public officials, party leaders, or others who work in the political arena to help you think about and prepare for such a calling. Running for office or finding a position on the staff of a public official can take time, so it’s probably best to hold on to your day job for a while. Lay out a plan for more dedicated involvement in the political arena, and enlist others to support and help you in prayer, organization, funding, and so forth.

Still other believers will be led to opportunities that can affect the decisions of political leaders through other forms of direct involvement in the political arena—in the media, for example, or with think-tanks, lobbying groups, social movements, and the like. It is essential that the Christian worldview have representatives working in each of these sectors of the public-policy arena.

For the Law of God to impact public policy we must have believers who are willing to serve in all three of the loci of public policy decision-making: conversation, publication, and service. But this last is the only way to make sure we have people like Moses on the ground in the presence of public policy decision-makers, exemplifying and explaining the wisdom of God’s Law and helping to craft policies that can bring the goodness of the Lord into the land of the living (Ps. 27:13).

It will be good for those who enter the political arena to understand the language of public policy—both how we must talk with God, and how we must talk with men. We turn to this subject in our next installment.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.