The Christian singer Amy Grant hit the nail on the head in a powerful song she recorded three decades ago. “Straight ahead, there’s no left or right,” she sang. “Straight ahead to your heart.”
I find myself wanting to go neither left nor right nor even centre, but to go deeper.
Amy wasn’t talking about politics, but those lyrics contain a message today for Christians who identify politically and spiritually as either right wing or left wing.
The message from both creeds is to “honour your liberated individuality.” This individual self is at the heart of liberal Western nations that has destroyed religion and faith more effectively than Marxism or fascism could. The result is secularism.
The Right claims free-wheeling market forces and macroeconomics are the keys to the good life, even if some communities are shattered in the process. The Left, from the 1960s on, has been about freedom from moral and religious restraint, even if the headlong pursuit of sensual pleasure is ultimately destructive.
Jesus was seemingly detached from political institutions, yet his words and actions have long been exploited by politicians of all colours.
I find myself wanting to go neither left nor right nor even centre, but to go deeper.
Going deeper in a Christian sense is understanding that we are made for community because we are created in the image of a Trinitarian God.
We should stand against the spirit of liberalism – whether from the Right or Left – that is totally individualistic and destroys communities. We know deep down that we were all created for connection and relationship. The church, at its best, builds community that isn’t just based on race or our political tribes.