An Inkling of Political Wisdom from C. S. Lewis

In recent years, I have become increasingly frustrated with the narratives and rhetoric utilized by politicians in both the Democrat and Republican parties. Neither group appears to offer anything more than simplistic and shallow answers to many deep and far-reaching problems affecting our nation and our world. The permanent bureaucratic mess in Washington, D.C., has turned the American government from the role of the peoples' servant into what Margaret Thatcher termed "the Nanny State." Politicians are less interested in protecting our lives, liberty, and our right to pursue our own happiness. Instead, they are more interested in being self-appointed experts who tell us how to live our lives, tell us what is the limit of our liberty, and then give us whatever they think will make us happy (at least until the next election...).

In the late 1950's, C. S. Lewis wrote a political article entitled "Is Progress Possible?" Originally published in the British periodical The Observer, it has been reprinted in God in the Dock, a collection of over forty of Lewis' essays. In this particular essay, Lewis offers a salutary critique of a great deal of modern political thinking, and it is just as relevant today as it was over fifty years ago.

Especially since the 1970's, the Republicans have displayed their gruesome tendency to placate sincere and pious Christians in order to gain political power. Some of these people may be motivated with the best intentions, but it is difficult to hide the unintended results: the Christian Right has become just one more "special interest group" which narrowly focuses on single issues like abortion, gay marriage, and prayer in schools, and which (like all other special interest groups) is often willing to sell its soul in order to gain treats from government. To this group, Lewis sternly warns against any kind of theocratic approach to politics:

"I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands 'Thus saith the Lord', it lies, and lies dangerously."

On the other hand, American Democrats have for the past eighty years displayed a shrewd fascination with continually expanding the powers of a bureaucratic Welfare State. Their idea is that every supposed ill of society must immediately be nationalized and bureaucratized if it is to be solved effectively, and anyone who disagrees with this approach is labeled as hateful and uncompassionate. This goes for everything from LBJ's "War on Poverty" to Obamacare. To this crowd, Lewis argues that putting such unquestioned faith in the Federal Government will inevitably lead to tyranny:

"The modern State exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us good - anyway, to do something to us or make us something....We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals. There is nothing left of which we can say to them, 'Mind your ownbusiness.' Our whole lives are their business."

Before casting their votes in this upcoming election, I urge everyone (especially Christians) to read "Is Progress Possible?" Citizens need to go into the voting booths armed with more than rhetoric, attack ads, and emotions. We need to vote based on a coherent philosophy of government, and the role that it ought to play in the lives of individuals. Particularly, Christians ought to examine whether their own political philosophy is truly based on government's legitimate functions, or is it yet another example of our own penchant to put unquestioning trust in the idol of government rather than in the God who created and redeemed us.