December 1, 2010

Churches can help at a time when the United States, for a number of reasons, is terribly divided politically. Part of the division is the result of the straight liberal or conservative bias of popular cable-outlet and Internet programs, said Michael Gerson, former speech writer and advisor to President George Bush.

"People can get their news information from sources that agree with and support their points of view, which leaves very little common ground in order to have principled arguments," he said at a lunch presentation at the Christian Reformed Church office in Grand Rapids, Mich.

With this divisiveness on the rise, Gerson suggested that the Christian church has a crucial role to play in trying to bring about civil discourse and helping to encourage reconciliation between the sides.

"We need to have biblically informed laymen who can engage in public life and find ways to help mediate between individuals and the government," he said.

In town to speak to a larger group on behalf of the Center for Public Justice, Gerson agreed to speak and take questions during the midday event at the CRC office. The Center for Public Justice has been an approved cause of the CRC for many years. The center's new president, Gideon Strauss, also participated in the session.

"The two parties are truly separated on key issues. It is becoming very tough for responsible leaders to reign in those on the extremes," he said.

Legislation of significance can only get passed when the parties are willing to cut deals and compromise. But there is an atmosphere of confrontation, not compromise, in Washington D.C. today. "My fear is that there is no one of the kind of standing who can make the deals. Ideology is in the saddle," he said.

Instead of taking hard and fast stands, the sides need to compromise on social ideals, he said. Sometimes the sides can agree on an issue today, even though they are likely to do battle over other issues in the future.

A syndicated writer for the Washington Post, Gerson is a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. He also is the author of several books, among them the recently published City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era. He is a coauthor of the book, which was published by Moody Press.

Gerson said he is concerned that bitter rivalries, many based mainly on one ideology or another, are threatening to undermine the workings of Congress and the democratic system. Democracy was built on the premise of there being lively debate, but the contempt he's seeing for government today could hurt that system.

"We need room to build alliances," Gerson told a group of about 30 people during the luncheon presentation.

Speaking of the role of the church, Gerson said there are appropriate times to take a stand on a particular political issue, such as happened during the era of the fight for civil rights.

Overall, though, the church should focus its prayers and energy on what Christian institutions are called to do – model ways to bring about reconciliation between the people of God.

In addition, Gerson said, the church should continue its word and deed ministries that focus on protecting human rights and confronting and addressing disease and poverty at home and around the world, he said.

Grand, but well-meaning, pronouncements by religious institutions on one hot topic or another tend not to help. "I'm suspicious when church hierarchies take views on areas that they don't know much about," he said in the presentation, titled "Graceful Citizenship."

Churches need to take seriously their role as teachers of morality and ways of living as described in the Bible. "This is a time to step back and look at the broad principles of where Christians can respond," said Gerson.

Both the Roman Catholic and the Reformed traditions, he said, have worked out practical and useful theologies that teach Christians how to engage the world, he said. Christians of all denominations can learn from these theological approaches that teach, among other things, that God is active in the entire world and all of its dimensions all of the time.

Keeping his focus on politics, he praised the Christian right – the group that brought Christians into the modern political arena – and its accomplishments. But he also criticized it for promoting an agenda that was too narrow and has had an anxious, "apocalyptic" tone.

"On the one hand, the Christian right made significant contributions, particularly in uniting Roman Catholics and evangelicals [to advocate on certain issues, such as the right to life] and bringing Christians back into civic engagement.

"The religious right kept certain moral issues as part of our national debate. They didn't build the kingdom of God, but they proved that America wasn't asleep," he said.

In the end, though, the Christian right has not been successful, partly because of its limited agenda and ideology. By keeping its attention on only a few issues, the Christian right became too closely aligned with the Republican party.

"Some people found what they were promoting was scary… It seemed that they didn't always view every child as a child of God. All of this has led to fragmentation."

Elements of the religious left have repeated many of the same mistakes, he said.

Gerson serves as a senior advisor at ONE, a bipartisan organization dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases. He is the Hastert Fellow at the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy at Wheaton College.

He also serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience, the board of directors of Bread for the World, and the board of the International Rescue Committee.

He is co-chair of the Poverty Forum and co-chair of the Catholic/Evangelical Dialogue.

During the Bush years, he was a key administration advocate for President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the president's Malaria Initiative, the fight against global sex trafficking, and funding for women's justice and empowerment issues.

With the drop in influence of the Christian right, conservative Christians are rallying and starting to expand their approach to address issues of wide significance. And Gerson applauds this.

"I think we are seeing an important broadening in the conservative Christian movement," especially over issues of health care for the needy in Africa and elsewhere, Gerson said.

Christian Reformed Church News Service