Dorothy Day once said, "Our problems stem from the acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." It is not the most poetic of all the wisdom uttered by the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, but it does get to the heart of the matter, as Dorothy usually did. Her pointed words are framed and hung in my study, just above my desk, so I can remember them at important times -- like the beginning of another election year.
In 1988 the management of the political system will change hands, but the system will not change. During this election year, that reality should be kept in mind. What could change as a result of the electoral contests this autumn and what most certainly will not should be carefully distinguished. In so doing, we can avoid the pitfalls either of thinking that elections don't change things at all or that they are as important as the media, the political professionals, and the candidates will once again this year have us believe.
To see our problems as rooted in the system itself and not in the succession of politicians and parties who revolve in its management is indeed the beginning of political wisdom. Such a perspective comes not from just being angry at the system, though there is always plenty to be angry about, but rather comes from a careful reading of the Bible.
When biblical values, priorities, and assumptions become our starting point, all other political realities can then be measured accordingly. To think biblically about politics means to cut below the surface of discussion around any issue and get to the heart of the matter. Simply put, to think biblically is to think systemically about our political problems.
The pre-eminence of money, the concentration of power, and the marginalization of the poor are the enduring realities of our political system that become even more evident during election years. A biblical perspective is exactly contrary on all these points. The exaltation of the nation, the covering over of our cultural sins, and the self-righteous castigation of our adversaries are usual campaign ploys that also run counter to a biblical view.
In addressing the state of the nation, there are likely to be few voices that call for genuine self-criticism, honest humility, and real public dialogue. True repentance, justice, and righteousness may be what the biblical prophets demanded of the nations, but political candidates running for office generally settle for much less.
A FEW YEARS AGO, a Democratic congressperson invited me to breakfast. He had been asked to give a major foreign policy address for the Democrats and, because he was a Christian, wanted to understand better what a biblical perspective on foreign policy might be. He asked questions as we sat around the congressional dining room table and instructed his assistant to take copious notes. I spoke of how Jesus' exhortations not just to see the mote in our adversary's eye but also the log in our own should be applied to our conflicts with other nations, including the Soviet Union.
I said that if every person is a child of God, determinations of human rights and freedom should have nothing to do with political ideology, race, economic considerations, or national self-interest. I suggested that the rest of the world could no longer survive the militarism and military solutions of the superpowers and that to tolerate and threaten to use weapons that could destroy the whole created order was a modern sin of unbelievable proportion.
After awhile, the congressperson asked his speechwriter to stop taking notes. He looked both stunned and sad. "Everything you've said strikes me as utterly biblical. It is also almost totally unusable for my speech. No one would pay any attention."
I was sad, too, but not because I think biblical perspectives don't apply to contemporary political realities. It is precisely because biblical realities make sense and are so urgently needed that they must be brought to bear upon our political discourse as a nation.
The values, assumptions, and limitations of our present political debate, over both domestic and foreign issues, have run their course and have brought us to a dead end and a very dangerous impasse. If the debate cannot make room for new perceptions, then the debate must be changed. The political discussion itself must be reshaped to allow different visions and possibilities of the nation's future to emerge.
There are no indications thus far that the political debate will shift dramatically during this election year. What the issues are and how they are treated will more likely conform to the limitations of present political discourse rather than expand the parameters of discussion. Nevertheless, the campaign should yield some important insights about what is happening in various parts of the country and among diverse constituencies.
By carefully observing how issues are framed and discussed, we should learn some things about how the political debate in the United States can be moved forward in the years ahead. Most important, by getting underneath the events, issues, and candidates being talked about, we can try to discern the deeper spiritual and political meaning for our lives and our future.
A NUMBER OF QUESTIONS about this election are worth asking. Which Republican candidates and constituencies will win the fight over who gets to claim the Reagan legacy for themselves? Who will emerge victorious in the party battle between the activists of the new political Right and the older, more pragmatic rulers of establishment money and power? In particular, how will the Republicans embrace, accommodate, or reject the new religious zealots brought into the party by the television preachers and symbolized by the maverick candidacy of Pat Robertson?
Will the certainty Robertson exhibits about his political righteousness and his disciples' fervent organizing style create new problems in unraveling the complex relationships between religion and politics, church and state? How effective can highly organized cadres of inspired activists be in cracking a tightly controlled party apparatus? What impact will the Robertson candidacy have on the rest of the religious community, and how much will he be challenged on specifically religious grounds?
What accounts for the Democratic failure to offer any truly alternative political vision? Will the party continue to dance back and forth between warmed-over neo-liberalism and Republican look-alikes? And how much longer will the term "centrist" be accepted as a disguise for moderate mediocrity?
In sharp contrast, how will the Democrats deal with Jesse Jackson's vision of multiracial, economic populism and international realignment? How, indeed, will the Democratic establishment accept or reject the challenge of Jesse's solid black constituency, and how broad will his appeal ultimately be? And does Jesse Jackson have the leadership needed to build a genuine Rainbow Coalition?
Will the issue of personal character continue to be a media preoccupation and public concern, and to what extent should it be? What impact, if any, will the religious community -- conservative white evangelicals, working-class Catholics, black churches, or active Christian groups, networks, and communities -- have on the election? How truly independent, partisan, or ideologically captive will the religious community be? And where will those committed to a "consistent ethic of life" turn in an election year when neither party and no candidate breaks out of the usual political categories in regard to the linkages between issues such as abortion, poverty, women's rights, and the nuclear arms race? And finally, what important changes could result from this election -- for poor blacks and other low-income people, for Central Americans, for South Africans, and others -- depending on the outcome of the two-candidate selection process?
All of these concerns and questions will shape Sojourners' political coverage during 1988. Through it all, perhaps we can come to a better understanding of the nature of politics itself and what politics is and isn't from a biblical point of view.
Ultimately, biblical politics has more to do with personal commitment and costly action than with the superficial ebb and flow of what is normally thought to be politics. It is important to remember that while the political discussion is flowing freely this election year, nuclear weapons still exist, the poor are still hungry, the homeless are still cold, peasants still die in Central America, children are still in prison in South Africa, and the marginalized are still forgotten everywhere. It is those who continue to address their lives to these realities -- realities that have yet to be changed by elections -- who best understand the true nature of biblical politics.
Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.
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