Faith Through the Journey

What happens to public officials who have the audacity to live out their faith? To people who don’t check their Christianity at the church doors but actually DO what the Bible says to do? When, in America, did practicing Christianity put people at risk? When these issues came into our nation’s headlines, I decided to look at what the original Supreme Court Justices said on the matter. John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, made the following statement: “Providence has given our people the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.” That seems like a pretty clear guideline for the American voter, a high bar of qualification set up by a Supreme Court Chief Justice! And what was Justice Jay’s guidebook? “The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.” Joseph Story, also an early U.S. Supreme Court Justice, wrote the following: “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”

So, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court stated that Christians were the preferred “rulers”, or elected officials. How does that line up with the current hostile environment toward people of Christian convictions who hold elected office? There is a clear disconnect. We are a nation of laws, and those we elect to positions of authority are expected to uphold those laws. That being said, we seem to have come to a point in America when any Christian  considering running for elective office will have to research ALL of the laws he or she must enforce before making the decision to seek that office. Because our legislatures, executives and judicial systems have set aside the standards the founders of our country originally set and are now passing down some laws that are in direct conflict to the Word of God, a Christian will have a crisis of faith and conscience when they are forced to choose between God’s laws and man’s laws. This is not a new dilemma, for the same one was faced by Jesus’ followers in the first century, when they were commanded by the Roman rulers not to teach about Him. Acts 5:29 says “We must obey God rather than man.”

It seems that we have moved far from what the early leaders of the United States believed to be the critical qualifications for our officials. It is particularly difficult when unelected men and women pass down rulings that are game-changers after men and women have already been elected to carry out existing laws. When elected officials are people of faith who desire to live that out in their everyday lives, it becomes more complicated when laws are enacted that may cause them to violate their conscience and practice of faith. Living out one’s faith does not require that they cram it down the throats of others, but rather live their own lives in obedience to the Word of God as they understand it.  Add to this the statement in the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” When a person accepts the responsibilities of public office, are they required to give up their First Amendment rights?

Sadly, the day may have come in the United States when men and women of faith may not be able to hold elective office if, in the course of their official duties, they have to choose between the laws of the land and the laws of God. The rules have definitely changed from what the original United States Supreme Court Justices described as the standards by which our leaders should be elected. I have hope that people of faith can still be included in public life, for the standards of justice and mercy are necessary qualities in our leaders. In times of national crisis, it has often been those leaders who exercise faith and point the American people to God as the source of hope and comfort that have helped us get through those difficult days. Luke 1:47 says, “For nothing shall be impossible with God.” The final chapter has  not yet been written, and for those of us who believe that God is still in control of the world He created, there is always hope!