Between us
Two essays before the election
By Walter Wangerin Jr.
Part I: God save the state No longer do we live, as did Israel under the judges, in a theocracy—the direct, political governance of God. People govern. And though they may worship God, they rule by a clearly secular power: by blue blood, by armed force, by a radiant charisma, by obeying (or else manipulating) the traditions of the land.
Or by an empowerment that is conferred, through a commonly accepted instrument, upon selected individuals by the approval of a majority of citizens. Acclamation. Our instrument is the democratic process and the Constitution that informs it. Our acclamation is the vote. Our government’s power is and remains secular. Not religious. We are not a theocracy. Our lead- ers do not descend from God above. Neither can they function as pastors, priests, ecclesiastic officials with spe- cial access to the Almighty. We are a democracy. Power ascends from the people below.
On the other hand:
Wangerin, an author of many novels and books of essays, is an ELCA pastor and senior research professor at Valparaiso [Ind.] University (
walterwangerinjr.org). His “Between us” col- umn appears quarterly in The Lutheran.
A religious voice is not absent in
our land. We are not without pastors and prophets willing to speak with effective strength on God’s behalf. They cannot rule, but they can
persuade. They cannot make the law that binds the citizens, nor enforce the law, nor cancel it. But they can shine the shadowless light of ethic on it, approving or disapproving not only the laws but also their premises and their applications. They cannot establish policy, but they can question it—by their reason, by their passion and by their pastoral significance in the life of the nation.
This religious voice has force. Its judgment, its prophetic admonitions can work change (John the Baptist, Martin Luther King Jr.). It is essential for our moral health. But it must not rule.
We are not a theocracy. We have two voices in the land. Nor should one subsume the other. Rather, they should maintain a proper dialogue.
Sharp incentive is given the gov- ernment to remember all its people: to be kinder than cruel, to seek righ- teousness, and never to pledge its sword to the forces of evil, whether at home or abroad.
Likewise, sharp incentive is given the church truly to remember its God, to act in sacrificial humility, never to be proud or triumphant in this world, but ever to serve and ever, ever to be crucified.
Solomon’s glory was his construc- tion and his throne. Christ’s glory was the cross, to which the powers of the world attached him. We are not a theocracy. Two voices, and we live in the tension between the two. So:
I grow nervous when I look up and see on the same dais the ruler and the ecclesiastic together—no longer maintaining the dialogue of
28 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org differences.
I grow afraid when the church raises the hand of a particular candi- date and confers upon that one God’s mandate.
I grow sad when the candidate gladly receives the religious endorse- ment—and angry when such accep- tance implies that the authority of the church is secular after all. Angry because the one who should have taken up the cross has taken up the mace instead, and my Christ is given a bad name in the bargain! And then I am frightened. It’s not just that this marriage of the religious and the secular shall grant certain ideologies (certain faiths, possibly not my own) the capacity (however indirect) to make laws that would censure other ide- ologies. Other faiths. Other ethical positions. It’s not just that the state might deny, ignore or afflict citizens of other persuasions. I am frightened that the dialogue might cease. If the restless, unwilling, perpetu- ally painful search for actual truth and moral truth together should cease, then the government could call its cruelties righteous, and the church would exchange its crosier for a kingdom. When these two cease to be wary opponents, both will be compromised.
Then shall our prophets be Hana- niah (Jeremiah 28), and our kings Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3), and our priests as “High” as the Hasmoneans. Well. We have not yet come to that deadly monologue. But I saw that pastor on the dais, smiling. And I heard countless Christians clap. And I wondered how much their loud approval drowned out the dialogue.
Part II: God save the faith At the same time I plead with my dear church that we never lose our special ethical nature to the winsome ethics of contemporary society.
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