Politics should be about solving the specific problems government is suited to solve, not defining our souls.  Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch, November 8, 2020.

Jonah Goldberg’s point today marks the intersection between my beliefs and the beliefs of many conservative political thinkers. Politics is not religion. 

 

If politics is your religion that suggests “might makes right” in your universe. Power is what matters, not truth, not goodness. The strong shall inherit the earth. The end justifies the means.

As I witnessed some conservative churches taking an unprincipled stand with Donald Trump over the past four years, I often thought that their ends justified  their means. That they would exchange their beliefs for a targeted political goal. And this saddened me.               (iStock)

And then there is the topic of bitter division, which is the text or subtext of everything written on the editorial pages today.  How can we base friendship or cordiality on who you voted for? How can we hold grudges about how the election was conducted? How can we paint all political opponents with a single red brushstroke, i.e. red for blood. Is there not more to life than Biden or Trump?

We take ourselves too seriously when we exercise political or social apartheid.  Your kids can’t play with the pro-life family on your street. You cut-off or box-in the car (or campaign bus) that has the opposition bumper sticker. You make a family on welfare unwelcome in your church, because you suspect they are wasting their government aid. When we impose our political convictions on others, we are also showing intolerance or vindictiveness.

Politics is not religion, and it will always be destructive when we forget that.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.