To begin, let me dive into new territory. Usually when you write a political article the aim is to make a grand point with what is wrong with someone else’s view. Also, how in comparison your argument is so much better. It even becomes customary to go beyond this and argue that the other guy is evil and your opinion good. Sometimes even heaven is blessed.

This isn’t something I think we find in the Holy Bible. When on the cross, Jesus Christ, in Luke 23:34, says, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’. It is astonishing when God in the person of the son suffers on the cross and still chooses to forgive us. 

The words ‘they do not know what they do‘, seems a good description of our politics from a biblical perspective.  Especially that bit in the good book where it says ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ in Matthew 5:43-48.  The Word says that even for those who hate us we should make room in our hearts for them and pray for them. 

We are particularly told in 1 Peter 3:9, ‘Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing’.  This demand of us is made to not answer injury with injury, which is such a common feature of modern politics. 

Let us take stock of what we can see so far that the gospel argues against aggravated debate. It seems from what we have read so far to demand not the adversarial attitude so characteristic of modern politics. 

So how does the Bible advise us to speak on issues we disagree on? In Ephesians 4:29 it says, ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen’.  The idea of Christian debate is never to discredit others. Instead, it is to offer them a truth which is for their benefit.

This principle of gospel driven approach to debate offers a yet unseen new way of doing politics. Which doesn’t aim to undermine and demean the opponent but to help them.  This compassion is central to the gospel’s wider message too. Specifically, the great commandment as put in John 13:34-35, ‘I give you a new commandment. Love each other just as much as I have loved you’. 

A master class in how this can be achieved maybe could be glimpsed in the 2024 vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J.D Vance. Especially the heart-touching moment when Tim Walz opened up about his son’s experience of being caught up in an active shooter situation, in which both candidates in that moment of the debate showed each other warmth and compassion, even if in other parts of the debate this wasn’t present.  

Beyond this, gospel-based compassion in politics offers something greater. Not merely a means of debating in a compassionate way.  We read in Mark 10:42-45, ‘The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’.  This hits the heart of the change required: politicians need to not see themselves as leaders but servants of the people. 

Which creates a political culture of chivalry which highlights in Matthew 25:40, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’.  This is the great idea Jesus offered us concerning governance of the strong protecting the weakest of society. 

This is what I would argue is missing from modern politics to a degree in America. Even though I think worldwide we need to restore the political arena.  There is a beautiful line in the hymn, “Renew Me Jesus” in which it says, ‘Lord Jesus place your heart inside of me’. The effort to create a more compassionate politics is just that: to put Jesus at the heart of our politics.