For many Christians politics is a dirty word, and they want nothing to do with it. But politics is a fact of life whether we are Christians or not. No Christian can live faithfully to the Gospel without thinking and acting politically for the simple reason that Jesus actually instructed about it, and the Old Testament is full of it. Historically, Christians have never done well in politics, and their ventures into its comvoluted and corrosive realm have generally not been encouraging both to the non-Christians as well as other Christians subject to their actions. This may be blamed, largely, on the fact that the subject is seldom examined carefully or comprehensively by Christians. It is, therefore, a good to begin our exploration with the subject of politics itself.
Politics, as a subject, deals with the exercise of power; how to gain it, how to exercise it—to what extent both in magnitude and scope, as well as the manner of exercising it—and how to hold on to it. Most politicians care only about the first and the last aspects of this necessary trio. Worse still is the fact that a full appreciation of good politics require a quad, the missing part being the most important, i.e., to what end? What are we doing it for? It is this last part which arms good politicians (assuming there have ever been one) with a clear head and heart against self-induced corruption. The British historian Lord Acton famously complained to his friend, Anglican Bishop Crieghton, that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." When politicians act only on half, and the easier half, of what is requried to be good politicians, Lord Acton's observation is inevitable. With this short peregrination into politics, let us look at what Scriptures has to say about Christians and/in politics.
©Alberith,