Criticism of “identity politics,” the idea that tribal loyalties supersede all else (including universal moral truths) is mostly (and rightly) leveled at the political and cultural Left, those who most often appeal to race, class, gender and sexuality rather than to arguments.
Recently, the authors of an article in Aeon online magazine leveled the same critique at those on the political and cultural Right, specifically those who have embraced religion as an ethnic and political identity, rather than because they believe it to be true about God.
The obvious cynicism about religion aside, there’s no question that more and more people now vote (and then announce their vote) more as an expression of their political identities, rather than after taking careful consideration of issues. Or, as Robert P. George recently noted, we tend to choose our policies based on our labels rather than the other way around.
This move to politics as identity is the fruit of a deeper cultural shift. A few decades ago, a group of left-leaning political activists announced that “the personal is political.” Today, the “political is personal” for too many, where we locate our purpose and value (not to mention the value of others) in our political loyalties.
Something as imminent and pragmatic as politics should never be made transcendent. It simply cannot carry that weight. Human beings need something bigger and beyond to ground meaning, purpose, and value. For most of human history, faith in God, or at least something transcendent, provided that higher order for life.
But, as religion, particularly Christianity, is pushed further to the fringe of society and further inward to the private corners for individuals, politics has moved into the vacuum left behind. It’s a poor imitation, and its loudly trumpeted focus on justice and identity is a shaky reflection of transcendent truth. Partisan leaders make lousy priests, and pet causes lousy doctrines.
As tempting as it might be to disavow politics altogether, we cannot. As citizens in a democracy, particularly in the United States, we live in a historical moment in which engagement is more complicated than for Christians in the past. After all, for most Christians in most political contexts throughout history, only so much could be done. In some, living out your faith in the public square could be reduced to, “Don’t get fed to the lions.”
BreakPoint
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