One of the biggest misnomers is that abortion is purely a political issue. First off, it is prudent to define what is meant by that.
The same professing Christians who argue that the Church and State are to be separate (meaning that Christians should stay out of politics and shouldn’t speak to political issues) are generally the same who claim that their political positions and voting decisions are driven by fidelity to the gospel. Irony abounds.
The problem with such a distinction—the presumed parsing of Religion and Government—is that it cannot exist, neither philosophically nor practically.
Consider this quote:
“Though it is common in the contemporary world to think of politics, economics, and religion as distinct social institutions (and to make arguments about keeping them separate), no such pattern existed in antiquity. In the world of the New Testament, only two social institutions existed: kinship and politics. Neither religion nor economics had a separate institutional existence. Neither was conceived of as a system on its own, with a special theory of practice and a distinctive mode of organization apart from kinship or polity rules.
Economics was rooted in the family, which was both the producing and consuming unit of antiquity. This situation was entirely unlike modern industrial society in which the family is normally only a consuming unit. Along with this domestic economy, there was also a political economy. Here the political entity controlled the flow and distribution of certain goods to and from the city, especially for the city’s central features: the palace (and the army), the temple (and the priesthood), and the aristocracy.
But nowhere do we meet the terminology of an economic “system” in the modern sense. There is no language implying abstract concepts of market, or monetary system, or fiscal theory. Economics is “embedded,” meaning that economic goals, production, roles, employment, organization, and systems of distribution are governed by political and kinship considerations, not “economic” ones. Thus political roles, goals, structures, and values are used to express political economy, while kinship roles, goals, structures, and values are used to express domestic economy. Religion likewise had no separate, institutional existence in the modern sense.
It was rather an overarching system of meaning that unified political and kinship systems (including their economic aspects) into an ideological whole. It served to legitimate and articulate (or delegitimize and criticize) the patterns of both politics and family. Its language was drawn from both kinship relations (father, son, brother, sister, virgin, child, patron, mercy, honor, praise, forgiveness, grace, ransom, redemption, and so on) and politics (king, kingdom, princes of this world, powers, covenant, salvation, law, and so on) rather than a discreet realm called religion.
Religion was also “embedded,” meaning that religious goals, behavior, roles, employment, organization, and systems of worship were governed by political and kinship considerations, not “religious” ones. There could be domestic religion run by “family” personnel and/or political religion run by “political” personnel, but no religion in a separate, abstract sense run by purely “religious” personnel. Thus the temple is never a religious institution somehow separate from political institutions. Nor is worship ever separate from what one does in the home. Religion is the meaning one gives to the way the two fundamental systems, politics and kinship, are put into practice.”
-Malina and Pilch Social Science Commentary on the Book of Revelation
What Malina and Pilch make clear is that in as much as an issue is political, it is also moral and religious. There are no societal issues that exist that do not affect societal life as a whole. This was true in the First Century. It is also true today.
Yet for the Christian, this isn’t merely a matter of the interconnectivity of life. Ironically enough, for the believer, every issue is a political issue…but not in the way one would think.
Philippians 1:27 and 3:20-21 says:
“Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel,”
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
There are two terms, stemming from a singular root, used in these two passages that are of note. They are as follows:
Πολιτεύομαι politeuomai: to behave as a citizen of a certain country (a characteristic Greek idea), ”I live the life of a citizen”; “I live as a member of a (citizen) body”; “I fulfill corporate duties”: in Phil. 1:2, some take it simply as ”manner of life”.
Πολίτευμα politeuma: the administration of civil affairs or of a commonwealth (properly, that which one does as a citizen), the constitution; citizenship, franchise; the state, the community, the commonwealth. The word sometimes means a colony of foreigners, whose organization is a miniature copy of the πολιτεία at home, and this makes excellent sense in Phil. 3:20.
The root of these two terms is πολίτης politēs: a citizen, and πόλις polis: a city.
The term “politics‟, is derived from the Greek word `Polis‟, which means the City-State. According to Greek Philosophers, ”politics” was a subject which dealt with all the activities and affairs of the City-State. Their City-States were known as `Polis‟.
City-State was an all inclusive term. The ancient Greeks made no distinction between the State and the Government on one hand, and the State and Society on the other. They never differentiated between personal life and social life. Thus, according to them, ”politics” was a total study of man, society, state, morality and so on. It is not by accident that Paul uses this term when writing a letter to the believers at Caesarea Philippi.
Located on the major Roman road known as the Via Egnatia, Philippi was “a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony” (Acts 16:12). As a Roman colony, Philippi was intended to be a miniature version of Rome. However, the Roman character of the city did not erase the previously existing Greek Hellenistic culture. As the common langauge of the Empire, Greek was widely spoken. Many of the Greeks and Thracians in the area who were displaced by newly settled Romans remained in the area. Witherington sums it up well when he writes, “We must then talk about a Roman overlay of culture and custom on top of the indigenous Greek Hellenistic culture which still continued in various ways.”
Amidst this melting pot, Paul encourages the believers living in this Roman colony to remember that they are a colony of Heavenly citizens, a reality that should be evident by their distinct conduct (politeuomai).
Understanding that the Greek philosophers took “politics” to be a total study of man, society, state, morality, and so on, a view, as Malina and Pilch make clear, that was ubiquitous throughout the First Century Greco-Roman world, it stands to reason that the politics of a colony of Heavenly citizens would be just that: heavenly.
In addition, as there was no distinction made in the mind of First Century believers, nor the rest of the Empire, between politics and all other realms of life—“politics” pertained to all aspects of society—there is neither biblical, nor logical, grounds for such a distinction.
Yet for a believer, a citizen of Heaven, this goes a step further.
The goal of the aforementioned misnomer (that abortion is a “political issue”) is to remove it from the realms of morality and religion. There has been a recent, and quite successful, attempt to distinguish it even further by labeling abortion as a “women’s health issue” and a “reproductive right.”. A clever maneuver. However, this poses no more difficulty for the believer than the “political” issue.
As citizens of Heaven, subjects of King Jesus, the One who is the highest authority in the Universe, our “politics” are not defined by earthly distinctions nor designations. Politicians do not get to decide with which issues the Lord concerns Himself nor His representatives. As a colony of Heaven on the earth, believers represent the interests of the Kingdom. Our politics are to be reflective of those interests.
As a Heavenly colony, we are not seeking earthly representation. We are Heaven’s representatives and must conduct ourselves accordingly. Abortion is not a “political” issue in that it is distinct or separate from moral and religious considerations. Abortion is a “political” issue in that it is a human, societal, state, and moral consideration.
All such considerations concern believers and must be evaluated and addressed in accordance with the standards of Heaven.
