What’s the Christian position on gun control, border security, immigration, and tariffs?

In today’s politically charged and divisive atmosphere one can feel quite vulnerable when someone asks a question like, “Do Christians favor more gun control?” or “What’s the Christian position on immigration?”   It sometimes feels like a political “gottcha” question which is used by some to make the church (as the phrase goes) “the Republican party at prayer” or, as others might hope, drawing from the church’s long and noble prophetic tradition, making the Democratic party “the Christian church at protest.”  The church, of course, cannot be so easily pigeonholed into any one political party’s platform or political vision.  Not now, not ever.  This is not a new situation.  Even though Rome in the first century did not have “political parties” like we have today, they did have political factions or “parties” which competed for the Republic’s vision. The two main groups were known as the populares and the optimates and people tried to pull the church into one or the other camp just as they do today.  Regardless of the age we live in, Jesus continues to remind us that we have been sent into the world, even though we are not of the world (John 17:11; 17:14-18).  We should be engaged in the cultural and political issues of our day, even though “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20, 21).

We navigate that liminal space between being “in” the world, but not ‘of” the world by living as “resident aliens” (to borrow the phrase from the book by that title by Hauerwas and Willimon).  To live as resident aliens means every Christian should feel a moral tension inside which can only be fully resolved until Christ returns and sets all things right and ushers us into the New Creation.  In the meantime, we are the community of those who seek the Kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33) and who live under the righteous rule and reign of Jesus Christ right in the midst of “the present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). We are called to engage this evil world and be an outpost of the New Creation in the “here and now” not just the “sweet by and by.”  This means that we must help the society to think better about the complex moral issues which swirl around us masquerading as easy-to-swallow political slogans, or a 30 second commercial without adopting the small, “this world” focused vision of any party, whether “left” or “right,” whether “red” or “blue.”

Indeed, the moral vision of the New Testament is far more complex than can be possibly understood by any of the normal political processes, because our whole moral framework is framed around the Risen Lord Jesus Christ who has conquered sin and the grave.  At root, we don’t believe we have merely “political” or “social” problems, we have a much deeper problem known as sin.  And, the faithful church through the ages agrees that sin is a nasty contagion which everyone has caught, both by birth and by choice.  The only One without the contagion of sin is the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.  This means that all human structures, including political parties, are marred by sin and are often morally inconsistent.  This is why many citizens who are Christians leave the voting booth, not with enthusiasm, but with a grim sense of feeling morally conflicted or, even worse, that they were forced to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” You leave the booth reminding yourself that a “vote” is not necessarily an “endorsement.”  It might just be the next best move on a chess board which looks increasingly like we are headed for checkmate.  Well, this is a good time to remember that every kingdom (political system) in this world is headed for checkmate.  The last headline will be:  The Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).  Nations and systems of government rise and fall.  Leaders come and go.  But, His Kingdom is forever.

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