Toward Principles for a Christian Politics

Recently, I was part of a panel discussion on the moral implications and real-world impacts on the vulnerable of H.R. 1, known as the “Big Beautiful Budget Bill,” signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025. Representative Chuck Edwards was invited to participate but did not respond. He said, when campaigning for office: “I pledge to be guided by my Christian faith and family values in all my decisions.” How did his faith and values inform his vote on H.R. 1?

The occasion gave me an opportunity to draft (this piece is still a work in progress) an understanding of a Christian approach to politics.

• A Christian politics affirms, in words and deeds, the God-given value and dignity of all human beings. Because Christians believe that God created everyone in the divine image and that God loves all people without exception or condition, we believe that God calls us to treat everyone with respect and care. We honor the freedom of each person’s conscience. We eschew physical, verbal, and emotional violence. As one dimension of loving as God loves, we work to be sure that all people have what they need, not just to survive, but to thrive.

• A Christian politics cares for creation as an entrustment, a stewardship, which recognizes and practices sustainable consumption and ongoing renewal of the earth’s resources. Because the “earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it” (Psalm 24:1), we are under sacred mandate to treat creation as more than a warehouse of commodities to be raided for short-term use

• A Christian politics practices mercy and seeks justice. Mercy moves in compassion toward those who suffer; a passion for justice drives us to seek change in the conditions which cause suffering. For instance, mercy feeds the hungry, while justice works for an end to the conditions which keep people hungry. Mercy shelters the unhoused; justice turns them into homeowners. Mercy prays for the soldier and the civilian in harm’s way during the tragedy of war; justice pursues the “things which make for peace.” As public theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it (echoed often by Cornel West): “Justice is the form love takes in public life.”

• A Christian politics is alert to the lure of nationalism and the temptation to authoritarianism. Followers of Jesus give their primary overarching loyalty to him and to the “kingdom”—the rule and reign—”of God” to which he bore witness in his words, deeds, death, and resurrection. We are first citizens of that kingdom and secondarily citizens of the nation. The church’s most powerful witness is to be the church: a transnational community of worship, truth-telling, forgiveness, reconciliation, hospitality, justice, and mercy.

• A Christian politics practices civility and courage.  When we practice civility, we use our powers of speech and action to persuade and not to coerce—to debate not to demean. We must also practice courage, especially in times like ours. Even civil expressions of dissent and disagreement may draw ire and reprisal from people who differ from us. Without courage, we might allow civility to devolve into passivity and kindness to become little more than expressions of bland platitudes. As practitioners of nonviolent resistance have taught us, boldness and risk-taking are not antithetical to genuine civility.

None of these principles is a Democratic or Republican principle. There are, should be, and will be debates about how to understand and put these principles into concrete practice. Some people will advocate for policies which are “conservative” and others for those which are “progressive.” Some will accent more strongly personal responsibility and accountability, while others will focus more directly on systemic and structural concerns. These are issues of how to implement Christian values in the public sphere, but not whether they should be implemented. The principles I’ve tried to articulate are, in my view, necessary for a Christian politics which seeks to honor the will and way of Jesus. I hope that elected officials who claim Christian faith will be guided by them.