The Better Good News on Political Division

The “extreme middle” is shaped like a cross.

My engagement with the impeachment imbroglio playing out in the hallowed chamber of the US Senate has been mostly after the fact. I watch daily news reports of the congressional proceedings and read the analysis. I scratch my head and roll my eyes. Given the allegiance of the politicians to their parties, the end appears as predictable as the beginning. As a dilettante of American history, I’m aware of our country’s predilection toward binary fury in its politics. Partisan democracy draws its energy from the passion polarity generates. Still, I appreciated columnist P. J. O’Rourke’s sardonic advocacy for extreme moderation: “We need a political system that isn’t so darn sure of itself. … Power to the far middle!”

Good and evil exist as mutually exclusive categories, but since we are fallible and finite humans, any overconfidence in judging ourselves or others as either is intrinsically fraught. Christianity’s doctrine of original sin (however you slice it) indicts even our best judgments as tinged by self-interest. The biblical writers adjure God’s people over and over to err on the side of mercy and leave the reckoning to God, who alone looks and sees our whole hearts (1 Sam. 16:7; Matt. 5:44–45; Rom. 12:17–19; 1 Thess. 5:21–22). Nevertheless, there are times when we must take a stand and even offend, especially in defense of the powerless and disenfranchised and for the cause of the gospel. Offense is sometimes the roadkill of righteousness (Matt. 11:6).

My esteemed predecessor bequeathed a fairly momentous legacy with his viral editorial last month. I’ve inherited the whirlwind, so to speak. Politics and theology both exist on broad continuums. ...