Bill Wichterman is senior legislative advisor at Covington and Burling. He previously served as special assistant to President George W. Bush and as the president’s personal liaison to the conservative movement. Before serving in the White House, he held a number of senior staff-level positions on Capitol Hill, including as policy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and chief of staff to Congressman Joe Pitts and Congressman Bill Baker. Wichterman holds a B.A. from Houghton College and an M.A. from Catholic University of America. He is an alumnus of the NAE’s Christian Student Leadership Conference.
Jesus promised his followers they would be strangers in the world. Many of us feel less and less at home in our nation, which serves as a good reminder that we are citizens of another kingdom.
It’s true that our primary allegiance is to the kingdom of God. It is also true that politics is, like the rest of the world, a fallen enterprise. But it does not follow that we can opt out of advocating for justice through government.
The kingdom of God is much more than praise songs, prayer meetings and Bible studies. It entails resistance to injustice and the promotion of virtue. To be a Christian means to care for the “least of these” and to love honest weights and scales. These are not optional kingdom pursuits but are part and parcel of what it means to “set your minds on things above” (Colossians 3:2).
God’s kingdom is just and peaceable, and we are obliged to do our best to approximate the justice of that eternal kingdom here and now. We will fall short, to be sure, but ours is the trying.
Being a responsible citizen who cares about justice may include writing-in a candidate where there are no suitable choices or voting for the lesser of two evils. But it must not include sitting at home on Election Day.
Politics may not be “your thing” in that you do not enjoy it, but seeking to advance justice through government is always “our thing” as Christians. Our fight against injustice must never take a sabbatical. Our rest will come when the kingdom of God is fully consummated in heaven.
This article originally appeared in Evangelicals magazine.