Are Politics and Religion the Same Thing?

Many sincere people claim that religion and politics are distinct and completely separate entities, when in reality they spring from the same roots and emerge as different branches of the same tree. Both represent the values and convictions of the people, and both religion and politics are shaped by fundamental beliefs about truth, morality, authority, justice, and how human beings ought to live. The same roots nourish both branches. On the surface, religion and politics may appear to operate independently of one another, but in reality, they are inseparably connected. In a moral society, both work together to help the people bear good fruit.

Without diligent maintenance of a society’s founding beliefs and values, governments and religious institutions can decay into a wild tree that bears bad fruit. Eventually, societies can become nearly unrecognizable to those who knew them before. Yet there is hope, and there is a defense. Just as an organism’s immune system increases its activity when something foreign invades the body, individuals who remember their society’s founding roots raise a voice of warning when incompatible ideas begin gaining a foothold. They expose corruption and advocate for a return to the original design. Often, these individuals are persecuted—and some even lose their lives—because the original moral convictions they hold dear are no longer accepted by the corrupted society they are working to save.

Our society has become corrupt. Our churches no longer speak truth with boldness or activate their congregations to fulfill their duty to God and country. The churches have even begun to persecute their most valiant members who see the corruption and are calling for change. As painful as it is when true Christian fellowship disappears from a community, the pain of government persecution is far worse. Neither tragedy occurs overnight. Both develop gradually through the consistent neglect and abandonment of the beliefs and values that once made a society beautiful and glorious.

It is true that the Founding Fathers of America did not want government and church to merge into a single institution, creating a dangerous concentration of power and threatening individual liberty. But neither did they envision Christian churches withdrawing from the moral and civic life of the nation. At the time of our founding, the roots of America embodied the gospel of Jesus Christ—not perfectly, but enough to please the Creator to make 13 colonies a nation. If the roots of the current 50 states of America continue to drift from the gospel of Jesus and start resembling the gospel of Satan, then the sword of justice will run through our land.

The churches have a responsibility to speak against corrupt ideologies taking root in society and to encourage their congregations to participate actively in the political process. Religion was not meant to be silent in the public square; it was to continually remind the people of their duty to uphold the virtues and values that qualify a people for the blessing and aid of heaven.

The societies of the world are declining because Christians and Christian churches have not fulfilled their responsibility. I boldly declare that the vast majority of professed Christians today have become hollow shells of their valiant ancestors. We have convinced ourselves that our belief in what Jesus Christ did upon a cross of wood for you and for me belongs confined within our hearts.

But what Jesus did for you and for me was never meant to remain hidden. It was meant to fill the whole world and bring it out of the darkness of captivity into the light of liberty.

The message of our God, Jesus Christ, was designed to heal broken hearts, proclaim liberty to the captives, offer forgiveness, transform lives, and free those bound by the chains of hell. The followers of Jesus were meant to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world—a living, preserving force of liberty.

Christians cannot continue claiming the name of Christ while refusing to participate in the moral and political questions shaping the societies in which they live. If this describes us, then we are practicing a corrupted and diminished form of Christianity. The message of Jesus does not belong solely within a church building but everywhere—an everlasting light radiating from atop the hills and mountains.

If our government becomes corrupt, we should examine the beliefs and values that have taken root among the people who sustain it. Political corruption does not simply appear. Government reflects, at least in part, the moral convictions, compromises, and priorities of the society from which it grows. We have been deceived into separating our discipleship from the way we participate in public life, leaving behind a hollow Christianity that professes Christ with the mouth but refuses to act out the gospel before the world. To choose Jesus Christ is to choose to fight for liberty and life. To reject His teachings is ultimately to choose to be bound and overcome by captivity and death.

Let’s become active participants in the political process. Let’s raise our voices and call our societies back to truth, righteousness, and liberty. Let’s call each other back to Jesus. Let’s be Christians!