Faithful Politics: Embracing Service and Surrender

I grew up in Buffalo, New York, in a sort of big Italian Catholic family but never sort of... I didn't take faith all that seriously, wouldn't have considered myself a Christian until I was 15. A lot happened, but the main thing was someone handed me a tract of Romans, and I read Romans, and it changed my life. [00:01:32]

I was interested in civics. I went to DC, ended up meeting Barack Obama when I was in DC, and worked for him. Fast forward, I'm working in the White House, and my first meeting is with an organization called International Justice Mission. Gary Haugen runs that organization. He's a great friend now. [00:02:45]

He sent to my office "Divine Conspiracy," and it sat on my bookshelf for six months because I didn't know who Dallas Willard was. I thought, what is Gary doing? I'm working, you know, 80 hours a week, and he's sending me books. But my pastor back home in Buffalo wrote a blog post recommending people read "Divine Conspiracy." [00:03:23]

I read it, and it was like a second spiritual awakening in my life. I mean, it just opened up a whole new horizon for me in thinking about what life with Jesus could be like. Since then, I've been drinking deep from the well of Willard, so much so that it's hard to tell where my thoughts begin and his end. [00:03:51]

When Jesus says that those who find their life or souls shall lose it, he is pointing out that those who think they are in control of their life will find that they are definitely not in control. They are totally at the mercy of forces beyond them and even within them. They are on a sure course to disintegration and powerlessness. [00:05:11]

What would Washington look like if people who led in that arena lived lives of death to self and surrender? And what are the barriers that get in the way of that? So a few thoughts. First, this idea of disintegration, I think, is absolutely key. In "A Lure of Gentleness," Willard offers this radical thought. [00:05:50]

When we're sharing the way of Jesus with others, it ought to be done not in the spirit of winning an argument or trying to beat people into submission but as an act of loving service. It's radical to hear that in the context of sharing the gospel because so often we share the gospel to win an argument. [00:06:21]

You take that approach of loving service, and you say that Christians ought to, their approach in public, in politics, ought to be one of loving service. It's just like people malfunction. They just, there's no blocks for them. Christians don't have a box for thinking about it because often the conception is politics is the corrupt area of life. [00:06:49]

For me, that means we enter politics not just out of self-interest, not just pursuing control, which is so much of what our politics is right now, which is people going to politics to try and maximize their control and therefore disempower others. Can we see politics as a forum to will the good of the other? [00:07:29]

Part of what it looks like is recognizing that some tools in the political toolbox are just off-limits for me and other Christians. There are ways, I mean, demonizing opponents, telling a story that if you just pass this policy, this will be completely solved, over-promising, ultimateizing the penultimate. [00:09:09]

One of the easiest ways to sort of raise support, raise money in the political space is one of two things. You could say, give me your support, and I'll pass this legislation in the next 18 months, or you can say, give me your support, and I'll hate the people that you hate. We want to take those things off the table from the start. [00:10:01]

So often in our politics right now, we see an injustice, and we use that injustice to justify the most destructive responses possible. What does it look like to see evil and just say, I'm not going to take part of it, and I'm not going to let the evil sort of draft me into just another expression? [00:10:44]