Can Christians Help Heal Our Democracy?

Can Christians Help Heal Our Democracy?
by
November 13, 2024

We are coming off a very exhausting, heated, and divisive election season that we will long remember: Emotions have run high. For Christians, the results of any election simply do not change our primary mission. We are called to follow Jesus Christ and spread his love to a hurting world. I heard David Brooks recently speak in Nashville where he said, “Our nation is full of lonely and hurting people. Lonely and hurting people tend to turn to politics to solve many of their problems. That doesn’t work.”

What we don’t seem to realize is that many of the problems that we face are deeply spiritual and moral. Politics won’t solve it. St. Augustine once said, “You have created us for yourself O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Given the division and bitter partisanship, Christians now have a responsibility to help heal this nation.

In his book Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer talks about the fragility of American democracy: “If American democracy fails, the ultimate cause will not be a foreign invasion or the power of big money or the greed and dishonesty of some elected officials or a socialist takeover that keeps some Americans awake at night…It will happen because we – you and I – became so fearful of each other, of our differences, and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends, losing our power to resist all that threatens it and call it back to its highest form.”

In other words, the greatest threat that America faces this century is not external, but will always come from within. It comes from the division, polarization, moral decline, hatred, and demonization that we find between groups, parties, and individuals.

Eugene Peterson once made a bold yet honest statement in his pastoral memoir: “I love being an American. I love this place in which I have been placed – its language, its history, its energy. But I don’t always love ‘the American Way,’ its culture and values. I don’t love the rampant consumerism that treats God as a product to be marketed. I don’t love the dehumanizing ways that turn men, women, and children into impersonal roles and causes and statistics. I don’t love the competitive spirit that treats others as rivals and even as enemies.”

Much of what frustrated Peterson also troubled Rabbi Jonathan Sacks before his death a few years ago. Incivility and anger have been on the rise. Divisions now seem much stronger. Rhetoric is harsh. We face digital overload and social media addiction. “Civility is more than good manners. It is a recognition that violent speech leads to violent deeds; that listening respectfully to your opponent is a necessary part of the politics of a free society; and that liberal democracy, predicated as it is on the dignity of diversity, must keep the peace between contending groups by honoring us all equally, in both our diversity and our commonalities.”

How can we heal and strengthen our nation moving forward to make it better for our children and grandchildren? Sacks offered specific principles for us to consider. First, for there to be justice, all sides must be heard. Many feel ignored and believe their voice no longer matters. Second, truth on earth cannot aspire to be truth as it is in heaven. All truth on earth represents a limited perspective, and there are always multiple perspectives. Everybody’s life, experience, and worldview are different. Third, the alternative to debate is violence, which is why argument, conversation, and rigorous debate must never cease in a democracy. When civility and mutual respect dissipate, new problems will arise. The goal in returning to civility is not to change somebody else’s mind, but to build healthier relationships, foster community, learn from each other, and have meaningful dialogue in a culture that has essentially resorted to echo chambers of the like-minded. All people of faith should now be committed to the challenge of helping our nation heal as it moves forward.

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