I was at a Kansas City Royals game several months ago, where I sat next to a gentleman who served on the City Council. Commonly, I strike up conversations with strangers to build a relationship with them, either for evangelism or to perhaps learn something from them. It was during this conversation that I began to realize why Christians must engage in the public square, both in culture and politics. This gentleman and I couldn’t be further apart in our values and politics, as he being an LGBTQ+ affirming, abortion supporting leftist, yet he was the one representing people in my city. Of course, nowhere will everyone be represented completely in governmental positions. However, what this man and the left have done well at in our current political position is that they are vocal about their beliefs. Constantly on social media, television, and in the public square, they provide an apology for their worldview. How have Bible-believing Christians responded? Silence. We will instruct our children in our beliefs at home, but we won’t engage the left and their ideologies in the truth of Scripture in the public square. All the while, we send our children to their schools and books for civil instruction. Should we be surprised when our children support gay marriage, abortion, and whatever the next cultural insanity comes about?
While evangelicals remain silent, mere political conservatives speak. And when evangelicals get budged to talk in the public square, they almost always punch right and never left. Therefore, if any thinking young conservative Christian wants to be informed while remaining grounded in reality that is not provided in the church, then they will seek those conservative values outside a Christian grounding. When the church doesn’t offer a robust Christian discipleship that includes engaging the culture and politics, its youth will begin following those whose character and convictions aren’t grounded in the word of God.
Thus, Truth in the Public Square was created. As a young adult myself, I have grown disenchanted with the current Church’s response in our political climate. Over the past half-decade, our nation has become more racially divided. What have many evangelicals encouraged many young white males, such as myself, to do? They’ve encouraged us to embrace the cultural Marxism of our day. Although that battle seems to be won on the right in the public square, the church remains in the muck, all to divide the body of Christ.
What shall we do? We must unite on biblical truth in the public square, in D.C., in your state, and even in your city. The goal of Truth in the Public Square is to equip all Christians to engage in culture and politics with their values. We will continue to produce online material from our team and guest writers to equip the church to handle tough issues before them.
At Truth in the Public Square, we have four main goals:
1. Equip Christians with a Robust Political Theology
Most Christians don’t know that their faith is truly able to shape their politics, especially outside the crucial issues such as abortion. Throughout the week, most Christians are taking in media and information that shapes their politics, yet fail to see that their own Christian beliefs must be the foundation of their politics. I believe that over the past 100 years, when Christians could truly sit across the aisle in the political spectrum, we’ve grown accustomed to leaving politics to the news media and neglecting politics in the local church. Just as our theology without doxology leads to cold-hearted orthodoxy, our politics without theology leads to cold-hearted conservatism. Christians must be equipped with a Christ-centered political theology to engage in our democracy, for without it, they will be left with the blind guides in the political realm.
2. Equip Christians to Engage in the Public Square
Once Christians have a robust Christ-centered political theology, they must be equipped to bring it into the public square. From the stay-at-home mother to the oil mechanic, all have their role to play in the public square. Beyond the voting booth, Christians must be equipped not only to vote for the candidate that aligns with a Christian political theology, but also to get more involved in politics at the local level. Not every Christian should go ballot chasing, but they must evangelize their neighbor, make a compelling case for the gospel, and the policies that align with the word of God and that ultimately produce human flourishing.
3. Unite the Church in Our Political Engagement
Christians don’t have to look too far and see the political divide among Christians on politics. For the most part, this is simply a reality of living in a fallen world where humans indwelt by the Spirit will disagree. However, I do believe that we can provide a foundation for uniting the Church in our political engagement. We may not all approve of a political candidate in the same ways, but we must approve of policies regardless of the political aisle when they align with Scripture and human flourishing. In addition, our political engagement with each other and our neighbors must be done in love, compassion, charity, but with strong conviction.
4. Evangelize and Disciple Our Nation
We must care about our culture and politics because we want to make disciples of all nations. It’s my conviction that in a democracy like ours, the best place for Christians to reach their neighbors with the gospel is through a nation that fears the Lord. As a collective, if we feared the Lord and His Word, we would be more free in evangelizing our lost neighbors and family members.
In my final thoughts of this opening article, we all have a role to play in bringing our nation into the fear of the Lord. We must seek first our own spiritual maturity, the health of our local churches, but we also must seek the health of our civil structures. We cannot give up on our influence in their culture after decades of our numerical decline. Every Christian has the right to speak in the public square in the United States. We should not take that for granted. Let’s collaborate together in our partnership in the gospel and see the culture around us conform into godliness through faithful political and cultural engagement.
