Should Christians Get Involved In Active Politics?

By: Frank Kyei Baffour
The issue of christians getting involved in active politics has become an important issue of discussion as many have divergent views so far as this issue is concerned. Apostles,Pastors,Bishops,other christians ,student leaders, other christian leaders, politicians and several other people have once in their life time engaged in debate be it formal or informal which has this question as the hub of the discourse. Almost each of them has deeply held beliefs and thoughts about whether christians should get involved in active politics. Many are of the opinion that christians should not venture politics as one may lose his salvation due to its nature. Most of these people believe that politics is fraught with skullduggery, calumny, malice and all other words which may not be pleasant for the ear to hear nor the eyes to see in its description. Therefore, getting involved in active politics would lead any person into getting himself in the unpleasant words used to describe politics by such people. Others are of the conviction that regardless of how one may be principled, good or honest the person gets ‘’rotten’’ when he enters politics.

While others have expressed such unpleasant opinions about politics and reasons behind christians not getting involved in active politics, some others have viewed it from different perspective. These people are of the view that policies of politicians have greater impact on people, that is christians and non-christians in its entirety and that should necessitate christians to get into active politics. This school of thought is of the belief that, christians should get involved in politics especially active ones and that may serve as an opportunity for them in taking decisions at all levels in their quest in seeking the interest of christians and the nation at large.

Politics is seen as dirty by many especially in Africa and Ghana as a whole; it is described as an institution one should distance himself from if the person really seeks honesty. The political adage that says if we are selling power and you don’t have money to buy, sell your mother to raise the necessary fund to buy and subsequently use the power to get her back is manifested by the penchant with which politicians seek power. Politicians move heaven and earth to gain political power having in mind that politics is a means of bidding poverty a good bye. They spend extravagantly on campaigns and do not care so much about the amount involved; afterall all would be recovered and generate higher returns. They coax the electorates in voting for them during their campaigns.Sadly, the coax metamorphoses to a hoax when they assume political office seeing the ‘’ordinary’’ electorate as downright gullible. Most of our politicians therefore take the helm of political affairs with the main aim of amassing wealth for themselves. Politics is therefore seen as a great opportunity to amass wealth for a person in Africa and for that matter Ghana. The notion that politics is the shortest possible means of creating wealth coupled with its dire consequences seems to be somewhat discouraging to any honest person and a real christian.

The nature of our politics brings to bear the greed of our politicians who would like to remain in power forever; with several others designing the constitution in a manner which will favour them the most. Drawing the constitution in a manner that suits them alone does not end the story of greed of our politicians but those whose parochial interest exceed the democratic interest of citizens of their countries. All these discussions make it quite difficult and unpleasant for a person who wants to lead a life worthy of emulation especially christians to get near active politics.
Many will therefore argue that Christians should stay away from active politics because it is associated with corrupt practices, greed and all other words that need not be mentioned.
In spite of these negative stories told about politics, christians should note that, God works through human by assigning duties to them in churches, schools, homes and other entities. These people hold fiduciary duty to the people they deal directly with and as such accountable for what they do. Since biblical principles are antagonistic to corrupt practices, these christians may have to act in a manner which may not bring disrepute to themselves and christianity as a whole. Most of these christians have gone directly in line with biblical principles while non-God fearing people who are assigned such duties have always shown that they are miles apart from honesty.

Our institutions can therefore never be free from corrupt practices if those in the helm of affairs see nothing wrong with the scandalous deals that have bedeviled the country. The Christian Bible puts it succinctly ‘’when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rules, the people mourn.’’ This goes ahead to authenticate the fact that nations who suffer a lot despite the natural resources they are endowed with do not go through such ordeal(s) because they are poor.
Apparently, they are led by greedy politicians who only assume power with the intent of milking their countries dry. Most of these politicians relinquish their professions and occupations and join politics solely to generate higher returns from it .Such politicians are bound by the axiom that investing in politics may be somewhat risky but the returns are enormous.

Politicians make policies which affect businesses and the economy at large; hence any bad policy made by politicians affects us adversely. Have you ever considered that decisions of politicians can collapse businesses and lead to high unemployment rate thereby deepening our economic woes? As indicated earlier, christians who have been entrusted to perform certain duties would price the fiduciary relationship that exist between them and their people higher than their parochial interest. Thus decisions taken by them are those which will help the country and not themselves and their families alone.

Most members of the national peace council and some advisers of the president are christian leaders and these people aren’t far from active politics. They may not necessarily be part of a political party but for the fact that they have a say to some extent in decision making of the government, we cannot exclude them from active politics. Unfortunately, they don’t criticize the incumbent government which appointed them. In few instances, when christians or other religious leaders voice their opinions out on the corrupt and bad practices of politicians, they are never spared insults by these politicians and those who staunchly support the incumbent party. These people who wear these political lenses see these religious leaders as people who do not belong to politics and as such should never make a comment so far as politics is concerned.

Dr.Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nelson Mandela of South Africa are rare examples of African politicians who put the interest of their countries at heart. They were politicians whose relentless fights for justice were devoid of pecuniary compensation, yet they never considered the risk ahead. These were politicians who were incarcerated because of what they stood for, yet they were not perturbed. These are politicians whose names will forever remain in the history books of their countries and their names can never be erased from the memories of the citizens of their countries .I doff my hat to these politicians who proved themselves leaders rather than mere politicians. While I cite these politicians as examples as those who portrayed selfless leadership, I don’t necessarily mean that they did those things because they were christians. The conclusion I draw from this is that, despite the fact that most politicians muddy the political waters, there are still others who would like to cleanse it.
The intent with which a person enters politics can therefore not be overemphasized in concluding why a christian should get actively into it. It’s the intent that will spur a person in getting into all dirty words used to describe it or be guarded and guided by hard core principles.

I must add that, politics in and out of itself is an innocuous concept .It however becomes problematic when it transcends the threshold of selflessness, honesty, patriotism and worms its way into pit of machiavellianism, unpatriotism and vituperative attacks. The other concern is when christians are discouraged from joining politics with raging notion that politics is evil and only those who don’t think about retaining their salvation would join it.
I’m therefore of the same wavelength with those who argue that christians should get actively involved in politics. I may therefore admonish christians who would like to actively get involved in politics do so; nonetheless those who wish to join should always price patriotic interest higher than parochial interest and greed. I believe that, if a lot of christians get actively involved in politics, corrupt practices and other unpleasant words used to describe politics will reduce to the barest minimum even if not completely eradicated.




Author’s note: The author is entitled to opinions about what is written in this piece. The discussions are therefore persuasive and not necessarily conclusive. The use of the word politicians has a general connotation and does not refer to every politician. The use of the word christian(s) in this piece may not only refer to christianity as a religion but God-fearing people as well.

The author can be reached via frakyeb@gmail.com
AUTHOR: FRANK KYEI BAFFOUR