These are important considerations, but for those of us who are Christians those obligations make a larger demand on our lives. We are the ones who are urged to practice mercy. We are the ones who are urged to give. We are the ones who are asked to be mindful of the poor and the marginalized. And we are urged to do it all—not in the name of a social contract or as Americans—but in the name of Christ. We do it in response to a different kind of citizenship. And our motive is gratitude for the grace that we have received at God's good hand.
To moralize with others about what they should do is cheap, comfortable, and unworthy of the Gospel's demands. I doubt that we would still be talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer if during World War II he had accepted the invitation of his American colleagues, cloistered himself within the walls of Union Theological Seminary in New York, and tweeted at a safe distance about what the German Church should do in response to Hitler's Nazis.
We have an obligation to engage the political debates of our day. But let's do it with a measure of theological clarity. And let's remember that we cannot fulfill the demands of the gospel by telling other people what they ought to do. The cost of discipleship doesn't consist of writing checks against someone else's bank account.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In