Jesus and politics

I frequently see people implying or outright stating that Christians should support some political position or another, often with an appeal to something Jesus said. These kinds of statements come roughly equally from the left and from the right. They’re wrong, though.

Jesus had a lot to say about how we should treat each other, but pretty much nothing to say about how we should organize ourselves politically. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Whenever someone came to him with a question that had political implications, he reframed or redirected the question; for example, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” or “He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.”

Jesus taught us to care for the poor and disadvantaged, but he never said to do it by taxing the rich and setting up massive government bureaucracies. He never said not to do it that way, either. Two people can support the same goal, but honestly disagree about the most appropriate way to accomplish that goal. In most cases, Jesus set the goals for us, but didn’t lay out the plan to implement those goals.

Our current culture encourages us to substitute political opinions for religious beliefs, but if we’re really going to be Christians we need to be careful not to confuse the two.