Why Should We Care About Politics?

As Americans, we ought to care about politics because politics depends on us. Since we live in a representative democracy, we elect people to represent us in government and to act on behalf of our interests. The success of the election process requires that we understand and decide on key issues affecting our interests. Apathy is the most effective way to ensure that our interests will fail to be properly represented.

In 1897, the following letter was written to the New York Times regarding the necessity of an educated American population. Although written more than a century ago, its warning is still relevant today.

“The great and ever-present danger is ignorance, prejudice, and passion. Representatives are fairly representative of their constituencies – no better, no worse. Hence the vital necessity that every citizen should be imbued with a full appreciation of the dignity of his citizenship, and the obligations accompanying it; and be able to think or reason for himself when both sides of a question are presented by party orators. Only with such education, which must embrace moral as well as intellectual development, can our Government endure.” (A.B. New York Times. 1897.)

This century-old letter argues that there are obligations accompanying citizenship, and they require that we be able to think critically about current political issues.

In his speech entitled, “The Constitution and Education for Citizenship in America,” John J. Patrick, Professor Emeritus of Education at Indiana University, further states,

“[The] ... constitution makers of Virginia in 1776... understood that if a people would be secure and satisfied in their freedom, they must achieve deep knowledge of and reasoned commitment to the constitutional principles and civic virtue by which civil liberty is attained and sustained.”

His speech proposes that our constitutional freedoms depend not only on our knowledge of current events and our ability to reason about the issues, but also on our commitment to understanding and preserving the principles by which our freedoms were originally established.

Why should Christians in America care about politics?

For Christians, these responsibilities take one step further. God requires that we submit to our governing authorities because they are established by His authority. (Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1, 1 Peter 2:13) This commandment has many practical implications. John Piper has written several articles on the topic and regarding some of these implications, he states,

”Therefore, in America, submission to “governing authority” is first submission to a constitution. This has significant implications for the way the constitution is interpreted and applied—which is a weighty issue in American life at the present time. One implication is that a constitution (or a contract or a lease or a statute or a Bible) cannot have authority over us if we can make it mean whatever we want it to mean. In other words, if you don’t believe that there are objective, original intentions of the authors of the Constitution that define and control its meaning, then you will give to it your own meaning, and that is the opposite of submission to it. So one great implication of saying that God calls us to submit to the Constitution (including its due process for amendment) is that it implies that the Constitution has a fixed, objective meaning.”

I know that we have just touched the tip of the iceberg regarding why we should care about politics and much more can and should be said about why we should care about politics. In the posts to come, I'd like to revisit the ideas touched on above in greater detail. I hope that this space will become a forum to encourage and foster critical thinking and understanding about some of today's political issues. For now, however, I think its sufficient to say that our nation depends on our active and educated participation in politics – and it is both our civic duty and an expression of our submission to God, who has instituted all governing authorities.