Political interest can lead us into pride and hatred, and it may even become our idol.
And all this is nothing new. It’s not because of 24/7 media or the increasing political schism that we must be careful. It’s always been this way, for the problem rests not in our environment but in the human heart.
C.S. Lewis expressed these dangers around 70 years ago in The Screwtape Letters. As you may know, the book is written in fictional form as letters from one demon to another, scheming how they may draw a Christian patient further from God. A few times in the book Lewis speculates how the demons might use political engagement. Three quotes from the book will help us see how we must be careful in our political engagement, lest we let our political engagement (even though we may be “right”) lead us into pride, hatred, and idolatry.
1) Political Engagement May Lead to Pride
First, political engagement can easily lead us to pride. On this, Lewis insinuates that the demons may have two main opposing schemes in order to hurt the Christian in their political engagement. The first scheme he calls using “cowardice,” meaning, making the Christian afraid and therefore not care about the good of others. Demons using cowardice like this makes sense since cowardice itself is a vice. But the other demonic scheme is using “courage.”
How can courage (which is a Christian virtue) be a political scheme of the devil? Lewis explains,
“We must consider our policy. Are we to aim at cowardice—or at courage, with consequent pride?” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 159)
Lewis’s point is apt, especially for us today. He is saying that the demons might be okay, even excited, that we are people who are courageously politically engaged, and even correct on many issues, as long as that courage facilitates pride.
Why would the demons be okay with courageous political engagement as long as it leads to pride? Because pride, above all, is a disastrous sin; it hurts us and our Christian witness. God cares so much for his people to be a humble people (eg. Micah 6:8), for pride defames his name and leads to many other sins. So the demons would be glad for us to have a certain courage in our political engagement—reading the news, posting truth, taking all the right, biblical stances—as long as that courageous engagement led to pride. As long it is “courage, with consequent pride.”
2) Political Engagement May Lead to Hypocritical Hatred
Second, Lewis explains how the demons might use politics to lead to hypocritical hatred—to us possessing a shocking lack of compassion. This from Lewis is clever, but as you’ll see when you read, it’s fascinating and something that occurs frequently with us Christians today, particularly in the political sphere when we think about our political “opponents.” Lewis (again, speaking as one demon to another) writes,
“Let him say that he feels hatred not on his own behalf but on that of [those in need], and that a Christian is told to forgive his own, not other people’s enemies. In other words let him consider himself sufficiently identified with [those in need] to feel hatred on their behalf, but not sufficiently identified to regard their enemies as his own and therefore proper objects of forgiveness.” (160)
In other words, the demons might be fine with letting us feel hatred toward what’s happening to those in need, and they may gladly let us feel a compassion for them, as long as we don’t then extend that compassion and forgiveness to those who disagree with us. The demons might rejoice at us compassionately identifying with those in need and the horrors they’re going through, letting us remain people who talk about forgiving our enemies, all provided that we then we won’t apply that compassion and forgiveness to those who we identify as our political opponents (since we’re trying to help those in need).
In brief, we want to fix the injustice and be compassionate to those who are treated wrong, but we don’t want to love those who disagree with us on how to fix the injustice.
Or to say it even more simply: We’ll feel righteous hatred for injustice, and so we’ll want to fix it. Why? Because we have compassion (this is good!). But then, because others disagree with us on how to fix the injustice, we will feel an unforgiving, un-Christian disdain, lack of compassion, and hatred towards our political enemies.
In one breath we think we’re the compassionate Christian ones (since we’re standing up for what is right and true and just), but in another breath we are the ones who are hating our enemies on the political spectrum (and therefore acting extremely un-Christian).
3) Political Engagement May Become an Idol
Third and finally, Lewis explains how we as Christians must be careful to allow political engagement to become an idol. This happens when we elevate politics to a plane near God. (And remember, this political engagement may be advocating for “right” and “good” things for our country and others.)
This often happens, as Lewis explains, when we meld politics with our faith, making our Christianity a “Christianity And.” Lewis, through the mouth of the demon, explains, “What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And'” (135).
And this then is idolatry. Using the political issue of pacifism versus patriotism as an example, Lewis (speaking from one demon to another) writes,
“Whichever he adopts, you main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of a partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce favor of [Patriotism] or of Pacifism…Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provide that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades [and we might add, social media posts] matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours…I could show you a pretty cageful down here.” (34-35)
We do well to notice how these temptations to idolatry still exist today: coalescing politics with our faith, combining a certain party with our Christianity, making politics the most important part of how we act out our faith, and most dreadful of all, using our Christian faith as a means to world ends. Lewis’s point is that the demons might be more than happy for us to have all the right, even God-honoring, political positions, granted that we make politics an idol. “I could show you a pretty cageful down here.”
Engaging in Politics Accordingly
Let us, therefore:
- Be careful to think that just because we’re correct and right and even promoting God-honoring ethics, that Christ is honored. Such political engagement may be a victory for the darkness as long as it’s fueling our God-belittling pride (and thereby, also tarnishing our witness).
- Avoid political hatred. Instead, let us extend the love and compassion which is making us engage in politics in the first place to those who completely disagree and are our “enemies” on the political spectrum.
- Refrain from making political engagement an idol, staying away from a “Christianity And.”
Some political engagement may be needed and helpful; we can do much good for God’s glory through loving the culture. But in these three ways, it can be dangerous. Let us engage in politics accordingly.
