The assertion was once levied upon me that adopting Christianity must have been an easy undertaking, since I already essentially believed everything Christians ascribed to. I told this person that whatever biography they read about me was not entirely correct. For one, I did not already believe everything Christians ascribed to; in fact, I believed almost none of it. For a rather extended period of time I not only did not believe in God (at least not the Christian conception of God), but certainly I did not believe in Jesus. These are, of course, the two “minimal acceptable requirements” of becoming a Christian, and I ascribed to neither.
But I think this person perhaps meant something more along the social side, or how Christians act and vote and all that. Again, I told him, this would be a mistake. Since Christianity, properly understood, does not fall on any particular part of the political spectrum. The thing about Christianity is it has some principles that people (at least these days) might consider extraordinarily leftist and other principles that people might say are extremely, if not radically, conservative. And so I would argue that any person coming into Christianity from any strongly held political affiliation should be made extremely uncomfortable, at first. I was. Becoming a Christian forced me to change many of my political beliefs–all of which, I would argue–were for the better–and none of which, I would say, are worth mentioning in particular, now. Suffice it to say I had to change some things and probably needed to. And this, I think, is a testament to authentic conversion. Since there are, of course, many Christians who will instead wield the club of religion to advance their otherwise unrelated political agenda. This is not the sign of authentic conversion. The true Christian (true Scotsman?) allows their religion to inform their politics, not the other way around.
Now, this may seem somewhat of a shock hearing this, at least in America, especially after listening to so many politicians say something almost the opposite: “My religion is a private affair, and will not dictate the manner in which I govern,” etc, etc. Such a statement may be politically correct, but it hardly rises to level of nonsense. Any person of religious conviction will always and automatically act out of that conviction. That is precisely what a religious belief is. Aside, why would I want a politician, who, on the one hand, claims to be religious, but, on the other hand, says they don’t take it all that seriously. It seems inconsistent. And politicians are inconsistent enough.
This is why I wanted Amy Barrett for the Supreme Court. Not because she’s a Christian (OK, perhaps that was a part of it) but because she’s authentic and consistent, smart, and a loving and generous person–not to mention, an originalist, which I think is right. She is not only verbally consistent with her faith, but in her actions, as well. Regardless of what a person might think of her judicial philosophy (being an originalist, and perhaps even a natural law jurist, like Clarence Thomas, which I also happen to think is right–how or where else do “inalienable rights” come from, apart from God?), for which everybody has a right to praise, critique, or condemn, it would be very hard to justify all the recent attacks on her as anything other than a very deliberate and malicious and ignorant–and indeed, bigoted–smear campaign. It made me a little sick, to be honest.
But here is the thing to really remember: We are all religious, whether we admit it or not. Because religion is just ultimate commitment. And so a religious person, then, this makes of us all, since no person can go through life without ascribing ultimate value to something, whether that something is God, the government, the absence of government, athiesm (my previous religion), or Wednesday night Quizzo with Becca and Em. So rather than talk about all this silliness of trying to not be religious, what we should be doing is trying to get religion right. Religion is inevitable, like thinking. So like thinking, we should try to do it well.