A Primer for Christian Persuaders in Politics

There is no magic formula that anyone can offer up on the matter of persuasion; much depends on individual facts and circumstances. To know when to hold back and when to fire back often rests with intuition and wisdom. In our experience, though, several considerations are useful in navigating these waters.

Maintain self-awareness.

Catholics have a useful term—“occasion of sin.” By this they mean a situation that can lead people to stumble and fall. A good way to stay out of trouble is to be aware of what these situations are and, whenever possible, to avoid them. In the political world, one particularly needs to be alert to situations that are likely to evoke strong reactions within oneself, so that one can try to channel those reactions in ways that are useful and constructive, or at least not harmful and damaging.

One trap for Christians is to begin to believe that they and their cause are indispensable and that God can’t accomplish His purposes without them.

Maintain spiritual grounding.

There is a reason Christians are instructed in Colossians to set their hearts and minds on things above. Doing so has the capacity to transform the human heart, to make believers thankful, and to “put to death” their earthly nature, including anger, rage, malice, and slander.

Like so many other Christians, we too have been much more likely to lash out at others when our spiritual lives have become enervated, when our faith has been drained of its vitality, and when we have begun to think as citizens of earth instead of as citizens of heaven.

Maintain perspective.

One trap for Christians is to begin to believe that they and their cause are indispensable and that God can’t accomplish His purposes without them, that “everything that we care about . . . hangs in the balance” of a presidential election, or that “our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost.”[1]

There’s a corrective for that—namely, understanding that God is sovereign and that His purposes will ultimately come to pass. This is not a prescription for passivity or lassitude; in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, divine sovereignty and human responsibility are linked. Only when one begins to believe that God isn’t sovereign does it become easy to develop an aggressive, anxious, brittle, desperate spirit. The struggle many of us face is to keep from believing that God depends on us instead of the other way around.

Maintain community.

For us, as for many others, our spouses are our first and best counselors, the people we go to most often to understand the condition of our own spirit. But there are others—parents and family members, colleagues and friends—to whom we can all turn for advice and guidance, not simply about what we say but about how we are saying it.

For us, it has also been quite helpful to stay in touch with people whom we respect but who don’t share our political views. There is an understandable tendency to seek out a community of like-minded individuals who can offer support and encouragement along the way. That is part of what we humans thirst for and rely on. In The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis writes that a friendship is born when two people discover they not only share common interests but see the same truth, who stand not face-to-face (as lovers do) but shoulder-to-shoulder.

Still, it’s important, especially for those of us involved in politics, to resist the temptation to surround ourselves exclusively with like-minded people, those who reinforce our preexisting views and biases. It then becomes easy—much too easy—to caricature and ridicule those with whom we disagree.

In the White House in particular, where you have access to more information than is available to most people and are surrounded by some of the leading experts and brightest individuals in the country, it is quite tempting to think that you and your colleagues are all-wise and your critics are all-foolish. And before long, you can find yourself in an intellectual cul-de-sac. That is a dangerous place to be. We need at least a few people in our orbit who are willing to challenge what we claim and how we claim it.

Maintain a spirit of grace and reconciliation.

In some circumstances, the most useful contribution Christians can make in the political sphere is to turn the other cheek, to respond to unwarranted attacks not out of a sense of justice, which may be fully warranted, but out of a spirit of grace and forgiveness.

Such situations are rare; unilateral disarmament in public debate, as in international relations, can all too readily be taken advantage of and turned against one. And in most situations it’s not called for. But now and then, forgiving the grievances we have against others can offer a powerful witness to the world.

[1] Quotes by James Dobson and D. James Kennedy, cited by James D. Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 127.