Does Jesus Like Democracy?

Living through the years of the Cold War, I sometimes heard Christians speak as if Christianity and democracy were almost the same thing. Naturally, the Soviet Union and Communist China were states which actively persecuted, beat, jailed, and executed Christians, and if Christians had to take sides during the Cold War, democracy was the side to take. But how close is the connection between democracy and Christianity?

If we think of ‘democracy’ as a political procedure – allowing citizens to vote, and the majority rules – we find little or no support for this in Scripture. We find monarchies, and we find decisions made by casting lots, but we don’t find much voting. In church history, we see theological giants like Augustine and Luther living comfortably in monarchies, with no expression of a desire for democracy. Democracy, in this sense, then has little or no connection with Christianity. Although my political sensibilities might be offended if I lived under the rule of a king in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, my spiritual sensibilities shouldn’t be.

But if we think of ‘democracy’ as an outlook, as a cultural attitude – we often read the phrase ‘democratic society’ - then we might find a closer connection to Scripture: if we define a ‘democratic society’ as one which imputes an equal value to every human life, and demands of me that I respect that value in the sense of acknowledging the dignity of each human, then we are coming close the Scriptural ideas of ‘humans made in the image of God’ and ‘even to the least of these.’ It is in this sense that democracy may have a closer connection to the faith of Scripture.

Crabb in a Nutshell

Larry Crabb's book, The Pressure's Off, offers a profound spiritual insight, but also a slightly flawed presentation. The central point of the book is simple and ancient, yet also counter-intuitive, because it conflicts with our daily experience and perhaps with human nature itself. The thesis is that we are often misdirected when we view our spiritual life as a cosmic quid pro quo: if I do this that, then I will receive certain spiritual blessings. A logical cause-and-effect schema, it arises naturally enough from our experiences in the physical world, the economic world, and the world of personal relationships.

Yet this mechanistic view is incorrect, as can be demonstrated by careful reading of the text of Scripture. God is in the business of dispensing unearned blessings. If benefits could be obtained by means of such a deterministic system, God wouldn't even be necessary, and He certainly wouldn't have the full decision-making capability of an agent.

Although most Christians will agree to this on a prima facie understanding - we cannot earn God's love, because "while we were yet sinners ..." and we cannot earn salvation, only Jesus can get that for us - more subtle forms of error creep into our thinking. We assume that if we follow certain disciplines (prayer, studying Scripture, worship, giving to the poor, etc.), then we should find happiness or peace of mind or wisdom, etc. We might think that if we practice honesty and kindness and hospitality and generosity, then we should find harmony and joy in our personal relationships. All of these are versions of the thesis that our behavior will direct blessings to us - that God will bless us in response to our behavior.

This error also entails the notion that, when things go wrong in life, it will be because we did something wrong, or failed to do something right - which leads us on a frantic search to find our misbehavior, so that we can change our pattern of action and presumably restore the flow of blessings coming to us. This is the "pressure" in the title of Crabb's book. This error, far from bringing blessings, will eventually, in some time of crisis, intensify our suffering by the thought that our pain is our own fault.

Crabb wisely points us in the direction of trusting God, and relying on God: we should not rely on our own actions. We try to live as God directs, not to earn any blessing, but as a way of expressing gratitude toward God.

The only flaw in the book is that in several passages, Crabb falls prey to the very dangers about which he is warning us. He occasionally writes that, if we give up the error, we can "expect" more peace of mind, or something similar. Here he is ultimately engaging in the causal fallacy: if behave in a certain way, I can expect a certain blessing. The word "expect" is a clue.

Can we, in fact, expect anything from God? Yes, certainly: Scripture gives us specific promises from God. But God's promises, and His fulfillment of them, are not contingent upon my actions. Jesus promises His followers that He will always be with them. He didn't say, "only if you act in a certain way."

Thankfully, there are only a few such small passages in the book. Crabb has a done a good service to the Christian community, and deserves careful reading.

Crabb's Lack of Pressure

Author Larry Crabb, in his 2002 book The Pressure's Off, gives Christians a good reminder that God's blessings to us are freely given and unearned. Although this truth is at least 4,000 years old - going back to the fact that God called Abraham before Abraham had a chance to learn about God or a chance to even try living by faith - we are constantly tempted to live as though we had to somehow manipulate God into blessing us. Our human nature, and the nature of the world in which we live, is such that many other things in life are at least partially earned: our paychecks, our reputations, our physical fitness, etc., are to some extent the results of our decisions and actions. So it is natural, but sadly wrong, to assume that God operates on the same principle - Crabb calls this a 'linear relationship' or a 'linear arrangement' - and so we assume that if we live righteously (honestly and reverently), then we will receive goodies from God.

It takes much reminding and mental self-discipline to systematically internalize the notion that God dispenses blessings with no regard to our having merited them. As Crabb phrases it,

Maybe the Christian life is not about “doing right” to “get blessed.” Maybe the Christian life is not about the blessings of life we so badly want and so doggedly pursue. Maybe our obedience and faithfulness are to be energized by a very different motive than receiving the good and legitimate blessings we long to experience in this life.

Life is about doing the right thing because this is the way we show our gratitude toward God. We can't give anything to God, because if we have anything at all, it is a gift from Him in the first place. Even my faith in Him is a gift from Him, as Paul writes in his letter to Ephesus. We can expect things from God because God has promised those things to us - our confidence is in His promise, not in our actions. We can expect nothing good as the result of our actions. If I seem to do something good, it is His Spirit working in me.

The spiritual journey is not about living as we should so life works as we want. It's not a linear path.

Most, if not all, Christians are aware of this principle to some extent: we readily reject heresies of "works righteousness" or "the health and wealth gospel" (also known as the "prosperity gospel"). We know that we can't manipulate God into giving us a new car by being nice people, or persuade Him to give us perfect health by praying in exactly the right way. But there are more subtle forms of 'linear thinking' which can tempt us in less-than-obvious ways.

Most evangelicals properly reject the teachings commonly known as the prosperity gospel or the health-and-wealth gospel. We know those teachings are wrong. Suffering happens whether people pray or not. Godly people grow old and weak. Faithful servants of Christ fail in ministry. Some die young. Sincere followers of Jesus feel depressed and unsettled and hate the pride and lust and insecurity that remain within them after years of living for Christ as best they knew.

We are, as Luther says, simply beggars. We can offer nothing, we can only receive from God's generosity. We can't control if God gives, what He gives, or when He gives it. Yet sometimes we feel that, if we are really good beggars, and if we humbly realize that we are beggars, then we certainly should receive some spiritual blessing from God, like peace of mind. So we subtly reject grace, and seek to earn God's favor, perhaps without even realizing it.

Though we deplore the notion that health and wealth are available on demand, we like the idea that legitimate blessings are given to those who meet the requirements.

There are certainly bits of Scripture which seem to support this idea, and if we cherry-pick precisely the “right” Bible verses (Deuteronomy 29:9), then we can persuade ourselves that our obedience will earn us a spiritually comforting frame of mind.

But we still maintain that the good life of legitimate blessings is a worthy goal and one that may be reached by living a faithful life of obedience to biblical principles. Good family relationships, good community experiences, good ministry that provides meaning and personal fulfillment, good experiences of God - we can arrange for these blessings to come our way. All we have to do is lead godly lives, pray hard, and expect great things from our great God.

And so we keep slipping back into some ever-more-subtle variation of works righteousness; even as we recognize and reject the error in one form, it reappears in a different disguise and fools us again. “Once we accept this linear arrangement,” Crabb notes, “not only is the pressure on, but failure is guaranteed,” because we can never be as good (or righteous, or faithful, or pious) as we ought to be. The appropriateness of the book's title, The Pressure's Off, is seen in the contrast to a phrase like “pray hard” - a phrase, frequently used with the best of intentions, which causes misery.

If we turn the corner, away from 'linear' concepts of how God might bless us, and toward the notion of resting in His grace,

we no longer depend on a linear relationship between performance and blessing to arrange for the life we want. That arrangement has mercifully been declared obsolete and has been replaced by something new, something better.

Yet, maddeningly, we still encounter the temptation to assume that if we act a certain way, then we will be blessed. Because in the very act of turning away from linear concepts, we are acting: it is we who are turning away. So rather, it must be that God moves us away from the notion of a quid-pro-quo relationship with Him. We cannot turn away from it, expecting something better, because it is precisely that type of expectation which we must not have. Crabb applies a terminology of 'old way' and 'new way' living and thinking.

Describing a friend, Crabb writes,

when things go badly, he's tempted to blame his misfortunes on his failures. "If I could be kinder, just a little less self-absorbed, my marriage would be better. Maybe then God would arrange for a few more blessings."

Crabb cites this as an example of 'old way' thinking, and rightly so. By contrast,

the blood of Jesus has opened a New and Living Way, a different direction to take, whether life is working well or falling apart, whether we're more aware of our kindness or our self-centeredness. In the New Way, the pressure's off. Living better might or might not improve our life circumstances. But now our appetite is different. What want something more than the Better Life of Blessings.

What does life in this 'new way' look like?

Those carrying it out are not at all like many churchgoers. They're decidedly irreligious. They don't live to make their lives better, whether by doing good deeds or praying harder or volunteering to serve on the missions committee.

Remember, religion is a man-made tradition or institution. Jesus wasn't very religious, nor does He want to create and promote religion. He wants a relationship with each human being. Living the 'new way' isn't about improving our organizations, or carrying out our traditions in a better way. It's about removing the focus from the organization and the tradition, and placing the focus on Jesus. It's about Him relating to us. Traditions and institutions will eventually, invariably, and necessarily disappoint us. Those living Crabb's 'new way'

have been disillusioned by the Old Way approach to life. Unexpected troubles, ones that cannot be traced to a specific failure on their part, have shattered their dreams of how their Christians lives would turn out. Senseless suffering, the kind they have no guarantee of avoiding in the future, has confronted them with a choice between two responses.

The first option, according to Crabb, is to 'abandon God,' and the second is to 'abandon yourself to God.'

Crabb's explication is good; however, he encounters difficulties in consistently applying this principle. This is not a criticism of Crabb as much as it is a criticism of humanity: Crabb has done as well as any human could. The problem lies in the finite nature of the human mind itself, which finds it difficult to grasp this worldview.

On the on side, we must understand ourselves as passive, in order that grace may be active: it is not that we need to revise our worldview, but rather that the Holy Spirit revises it for us. On the other side, as we are infused with this new worldview, we must avoid the expectation that 'now we will have the better life' - we cannot view Crabb's "new way" as a solution to our problems. In fact, it might create more problems for us. For Jesus, it yielded rejection, hatred, beatings, torture, and execution. It did, and still does, that for many of his followers. We should not expect some blissful inner joy: sincere Christians suffer from depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders in addition to external and physical forms of suffering.

At several points in the text, Crabb slips: he tells us we can "expect" this or that result from embracing his 'new way' - again, this is not a criticism of Crabb, because no human could do better: how can we expect to explain the mind of God, given our limitations? No human can write a book to completely capture God's wisdom. This also does not mean that I do not find other errors, avoidable errors in Crabb's book: my purpose here is to explain his main idea, not to catalogue the errors in his book. I do not excuse or overlook his other errors: I merely state that this one error is unavoidable.

At his best, Crabb's prose crystalizes - even if the crystal is occasionally cloudy or contains specks - the Gospel principle he calls the 'new way':

nothing, absolutely nothing, is demanded. The passion for a better life, though real and deep and felt without shame, is not at the center. A better life is not the point; it doesn't drive what we do; it isn't the first passion in the heart of a New Way revolutionary.

Finally, one might state the argument in terms of causation: God dispenses blessings in a way uncaused by us. I can't do or say anything to force God to bless me, or to bless you. My faith or my state of mind is not the cause of God's sending me blessings. Wonderful gifts are given to the godless and evil; horrid suffering overtakes the faithful and pious. Blessings might come my way, or they might not. I am to simply live in the awareness of Jesus. That may, in itself, be a wonderful blessing, but I do not do it for the sake of that blessing.

Crabb has opened a brilliant, yet troublingly complex, set of ideas. Let us hope that he and other writers will pursue them further.