Danny ChaiI think I agree with this David Brooks piece completely. First, that it’s naive – even dangerous – to believe that politics and faith should be completely separate. Obviously, one should not be required to be of any faith – or even have faith at all – to participate in politics. But it is proper for those who have faith to bring it to bear on every aspect of life, including politics. This has always been American – the Declaration of Independence rests its argument on inalienable rights granted by the Creator. Lincoln’s speeches (especially 2nd Inaugural Address and his Farewell Address) are rife with religious language. This is not to say that the U.S. ever was or should be Christian. Just that it is good for faith to be a part of the public sphere.
The problem is that there needs to be a philosophy about how the spheres of faith and politics should intersect. Without that, they become completely co-mingled, which leads to problems Brooks rightly points out, among them equating politics with spiritual warfare and a syncretism that politicizes and degrades faith while totalizing politics.
I was disturbed by Charlie Kirk’s memorial. Not because it was bad, but because it was so wildly mixed. There were moments of true beauty, even transcendance, especially the worship and Erica Kirk’s eulogy, which reflected Christ’s call to forgiveness with real poignance. And then there were moments of pure ugly partisan politics, completely contrary to the spirit of Christ. I suppose it’s somewhat to his credit that Trump was so honest in saying he cannot forgive in the way the Kirks did and that he hates his enemies, but this is obviously non-Christian. As Brooks points out, Stephen Miller basically called his enemies vermin. And the same crowd that applauded Erica Kirk applauded Miller’s speech. It gave me whiplash and I can’t understand it.
In my opinion, the ugliness of the memorial doesn’t negate the good. But neither does the good automatically redeem the ugliness. And it’s deeply troubling to me – when we’re singing How Great Is Our God at the exact same event where we’re talking about hating and destroying our (political) enemies, I mean, what are we doing here? And that people observe this and say, nothing to see here, no problem, I just don’t know.