IN HIS FIRST speech as president-elect, Joe Biden outlined four priorities his incoming administration plans to address: systemic racism, the COVID-19 crisis, climate change, and economic hardship and recovery. I am encouraged not just by the breadth of policy detail and ambition in his Build Back Better platform but also by the radically different narrative for the nation and its future. These four pillars should resonate for people across the diversity of the church, and they will require that we generate significant political will, urgency, and accountability within the new administration and Congress to achieve progress on these priorities and more. Along with policy reforms, we also face an imperative to renew our broken and toxic political culture.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaims, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” (Matthew 12:25). This profound truth is relevant for the church and for the nation.
We are at an inflection point in our nation’s politics, facing an essential choice between a politics of division and a politics of the common good. The politics of division manipulates and trades in fear, hatred, and hypocrisy, what the theologian and mystic Howard Thurman referred to as the three hounds of hell. The politics of division stokes an “us versus them” and zero-sum mentality. The politics of division exploits people’s fears and grievances. It reasserts the lie that some Americans are “more American” than others. It is fueled by falsehoods, hyperselfishness, and eroding public trust in institutions and the media.
The politics of division also feeds on what political scientists refer to as affective polarization rather than differences on the issues; many Americans are closer together on controversial issues than is often portrayed in the media. But it’s more difficult to find commonality on issues when our perceived differences are tied to core parts of our group identity. This challenge is compounded within the church because, for far too many Christians, political identity has become fused with white supremacy and Christian nationalism.
How do we move from a politics of division to a politics of the common good? There are no quick fixes or magic bullets, but I believe this will require transformation at every level, from local communities to the nation as a whole. It starts with emphasizing our shared values and aspirations and working together to solve common challenges. It also requires changing the perverse incentives in our politics that too often reward a politics of division. This will require real changes, including major ethics reforms, the elimination of gerrymandered districts that so often favor extreme candidates, reinstating the Voting Rights Act to combat voter suppression, and rooting out the cancer of disinformation that has infiltrated, and is often elevated on, social media platforms.
Our faith calls us not only to love our neighbors as ourselves but also to the even harder work of listening to and loving our enemies, including those we disagree with politically. This can be done in a spirit of love without compromising our commitment to truth-telling and to seeking justice. A politics of the common good could help redeem our public life, putting the welfare and interests of the nation, particularly the most vulnerable, over the narrow pursuit of partisanship, greed, and power.
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Follow him on Bluesky @revadamtaylor.
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