23 RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CIVIL DISCOURSE one should note that religious arguments were made on both sides of these historic events in American history.) In both of these instances, the religious voice worked as a prophet to the government, proclaiming the injustice in society. In instances where religion is able to prophetically alter the government, both church and state are strengthened. However, religion has often been negatively influenced by politics. When power is within grasp, convictions are often compromised. While politics needs the morality that religion can provide, religion does not need the power with which politics tempts, as Stephen Carter writes, “A religion that becomes too settled in the secular sphere, happily amassing influence and using it, is likely to lose its best and most spiritual self… .”1 In the world of politics, in order to remain in power one often has to compromise. For religion, compromise leads to loss of purity of doctrine.2 When compromise occurs, political power may be attained or secured, but the church loses its moral standing. Political success is seductive, but it is also fleeting. While polls may popularize a person or a movement today, is the cost of integrity and witness worth it? Christians who engage in the political sphere must maintain their faithful witness. The witness is maintained by insisting upon civility, practicing humility, and remembering that our calling is to be salt and light, not graspers of power. BALANCING POLITICAL DIFFERENCES A recent Pew Research article states: “Partisan polarization remains the dominant, seemingly unalterable condition of American politics. Republicans and Democrats agree on very little—and when they do, it often is in the shared belief that they have little in common.”3 Arthur Brooks describes our negative political polarization as an addiction: America is addicted to political contempt. While most of us hate what it is doing to our country and worry about how contempt coarsens our culture over the long term, many of us still compulsively consume the ideological equivalent of meth from elected officials, academics, entertainers, and some of the news media. Millions actively indulge their habit by participating in the cycle of contempt in the way they treat others, especially on social media. We wish our national debates were nutritious and
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