The very existence of the specialist class can be annoying at times. When I visited my general practitioner to find out why my shoulder was in pain, he referred me to an orthopedist. The orthopedist wanted me to get an MRI, so he sent me to a radiologist, who sent me back to the orthopedist, who then sent me to a physical therapist. Generalists know broadly, and specialists know the field in which they specialize very, very well. My doctor is skilled, but the specialist has more tools and more knowledge to employ in solving the specialized problem.
Ideally, specialists are equipped with expertise and positioned for action in ways that the general population lacks. King David’s “mighty men,” your church’s janitor who has the special cleaning tools, and the biblical language scholar who can tell you why the aorist form of verb is significant in a particular a New Testament passage—all these are specialists in their own fashion. Because of their equipping and position, they can do things that others cannot.
When it comes to public policy, it seems like specialists are a dime a dozen. In the United States—where every registered voter is a governor in some sense—we all like to think we’re experts. Political punditry is a national pastime precisely because we’re all involved to one level or another in politics. But punditry goes only so far, and when the rubber meets the road, most of us don’t have time to pore through massive legislative bills to find threats to religious liberty. Nor do most of us have the expertise to find hidden government efforts to fund abortions overseas or to determine the best way to combat an oppressive executive action.
That’s where Christian public policy organizations come in. If they’re doing their specialized work in the right way, they can maximize effectiveness in protecting and advancing public policy issues important to Christ’s church.
A Disclaimer
Every morning as I drive across the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol Building, I remind myself that while I’ve seen a lot, I certainly haven’t seen it all. I’ve worked in Washington, D.C. in Christian public policy sphere since 2006, primarily in various roles at Family Research Council, an organization whose mission is “to serve in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.”
My tenure in Washington has witnessed the Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, and now Trump (again) administrations, the House of Representatives and the Senate exchanging hands multiple times, and a shifting of the balance of the Supreme Court. Each of these changes had a significant impact on issues and how our organization postured itself—sometimes on offense, sometimes on defense. While this article can’t help but be flavored by my own experience, my aim is to delineate the broader principles to which Christian advocacy organizations should aspire.
A Proper Grounding
Politics can be a dirty business, and its reputation is perhaps even dirtier. When even the Gospel narratives speak of the government tax collector as a pejorative (e.g., Mark 2:5), you know that getting into politics will have its moral challenges. That’s why a Christian advocacy organization must have strong grounding before getting off the ground.
Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.” (2 Cor. 10:3). If politics is exemplary of walking in the flesh, the admonition to not wage war according to the flesh is all the more important. A Christian public policy organization should be made up of believers who are daily walking according to the Spirit, even as they labor in the flesh-and-blood world of politics.
Washington, D.C. is teeming with public policy professionals. Throw a stone in the capital city without even looking and you’re sure hit an attorney, a lobbyist, or a media specialist who is willing to do any job for a paycheck. Sadly, the ‘Christians’ in these fields are often hard to tell apart from the rest. I’ve interviewed many job applicants over the years who may have been well-qualified by the world’s standards but seemed more enamored that the work might be conservative than that it was Christian.
The “Swamp” contains many hazards, and a staff whose roots are anchored in the good soil (Mark 4:8) is necessary if there is to be any differentiation between uniquely Christian public policy and the policies of the world. Morton Blackwell’s adage “personnel is policy” applies doubly here. Knowledge of political processes without knowledge of and devotion to the Scriptures will eventually result in public policy that is anything but Christian.
Neighborhood Rules
Be it in the nation’s capital or the local town council, any advocacy group must play by the rules of the neighborhood. Politics is an insider game, and even the occasional outsider who makes inroads does so by using the insider framework.
Christian public policy groups are no exception to this rule. While Jesus did say that his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:38), the triumph of the cross of Christ happened within the context of a corrupt political system. The corrupt mechanisms themselves were used by God to accomplish his purpose. Likewise, the apostle Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship (Acts 22:5) and highlighted the legitimacy of the state as God’s servant (Romans 13).
In Washington, working within the political context means working in coalition. Many voices advocating for an issue is more powerful than merely one, and this means sometimes making otherwise strange alliances. For example, a Christian organization may argue alongside a feminist group for policies that protect women in women’s spaces (e.g., bathrooms and showers) from men who pretend to be women. More frequently, an organization will align with other Christian and conservative groups to maximize (and not duplicate) efforts. Coordination requires relationships, and any group that tries to go it alone will find itself on the margins.
Christian Advocacy Must Be Uncompromising
If politics is a pressure cooker, then Washington, D.C. is a hyperbaric chamber. Pressure to conform comes from all sides. Gentle nudges to “get with the program” morph quickly into violent shoves. Christian public policy organizations can quickly be tempted to water down or otherwise discard core principles for the purpose of getting along. Such compromises may keep them in coalition, give them the right photo-ops for donors, or the continued ear of a public figure. But in gaining this whole world, they lose their soul.
A Christian public policy group must be uncompromising on its core principles. It needs to clearly delineate where the lines are that shall not be crossed. Typically, those lines are on the most controversial issues—issues such as the sanctity of life, biblical sexuality, and religious freedom. For example, a Christian group who says at any point that marriage is defined as anything other than the union of one man and one woman is a group that has made “Christian” merely (and falsely) adjectival. There should be no compromise on the fact that human life begins at conception and is therefore worthy of protection from conception until natural death. There should be no compromise on the exercise of religion free of coercion from the state.
Christian Advocacy Must Be Compromising
Once these core lines are firmly drawn, Christian public policy organizations must focus on protecting and advancing their core issues, even making compromises when necessary to accomplish those objectives. While politics—and Christian political action especially—should be visionary, we must still seek to make progress in the fallen world (and fallen political order) in which we live.
The Rolling Stones sang, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and this slogan is never truer than in politics. The more votes you need, the more people you must court who are not in 100 percent alignment with you. This might mean agreeing with a coalition on a less-than-favorable policy that is sure to pass and leaving behind the more robust policy for another day. Politics in a democratic republic is woven in compromise. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.
For the Christians, such compromise can never transgress their core principles. Prudence, patience, prioritization, and prayer all play a role in determining by godly wisdom which compromises are acceptable at a particular time.
The Specialist Must Not Be at Odds with the Generalist
If a Christian advocacy group is not representative of Christians and Christian belief, it is as valuable as a screen door on a submarine. If my orthopedist had treated my foot instead of my aching shoulder simply because he was treating feet that day, I’d still be in pain. Even as they may take the lead due to their expertise, Christian advocacy groups must stay tethered to the issues that matter to the churches they serve. They must address first and foremost those issues that most threaten or most enhance the church’s gospel witness. In other words, Christian public policy organizations should support and be accountable to the churches they represent, not run far afield of them.
Thankfully, specialists can and often do provide significant aid to those they serve. Following 8 weeks of physical therapy, I regained 95 percent of my shoulder’s mobility. I didn’t get 100 percent healing, but I was far better off than when I had 30 percent mobility and constant pain. A Christian public policy organization that’s anchored in God’s truth is much the same. Such specialized organizations won’t be able to do it all on their own, but Lord willing, they’ll serve believers by helping protect and advance Christian interests in the public square as we all strive together to build a society that reflects the King of Kings.
