What role does God play in modern politics? by Ruth Achilla

My first reaction to the question was a desire to revise it. I thought it should be, ‘What role should God play in modern politics?’ The way I see things, the political scene right now has been so secularized, it’s nearly impossible to imagine God actually participating actively in such a broken down system.

Strangely, a few countries like Uganda throw in a few lines about God in the National anthem. We even have our leaders swear on the Bible as they assume office but in truth, the way political offices are run makes the absence of any true commitment to God painfully obvious.

Let’s go back in time a little, to when God was the central point of the political scene. In Genesis 1:26 (paraphrased) God says, let’s make man in our own image and let them have dominion over the earth. Undoubtedly, it’s clear that God is not anti leadership and he wanted man to have a major role in the creation process.

God seemed to desire a partnership with man and also He shared his power with him. Well as the story goes, man fell and the dynamic shifted from the partnership and fellowship that has earlier existed to there being a few handpicked ‘judges’ who were God’s mouth piece. Then in 1Samuel 8, the people demand for a thing because they want to be like everyday else. By making this demand, God said to Samuel that the people had forsaken Him and betrayed Him after everything they had been through together.

Fast forward back to the present and you realize that things have not really changed from the time of the Israelites and Saul. There is still that constant search for the new revolutionary ‘king’ to lead them only new, the ‘them’ is us and we are repeating the same mistake over again. I think what we do not realize is that God really is not a dictator. I mean he could have a political overhaul in the blink of an eye and throw all the corrupt leaders out of cabinet if he wanted to. He does not do that. As Jesus said to Pilate before his crucifixion, all the authority that Pilate had was God given. This is reiterated in Romans 13 which teaches that there is no authority except for God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Contrary to what a lot of people think, God is not the man in the sky, looking down on us; irrelevant, archaic and removed from the scheme of things. He actually is responsible for the leaders because there can be no authority that He has not appointed. I think, what we need to understand finally is that to operate with authority, we have to be under authority. There has to be a willingness on our part to stop sideling Him and imagining that God will be pacified by insincere demonstrations of commitment and loyalty. What he wants, like Amos says, is righteousness and justice, not sacrifice.

I think that the role of God is hindered in modern politics not only by the controlling, corrupting thirst for power but also a refusal by leaders who could make a difference to take the leadership reins and restore the partnership that existed before with God.

God is not at war with man, neither is He a weakling with a low self esteem who needs flattery to make Him feel better about Himself. No, He is sovereign and He already has all the power. I think what He is saying to us is when we have a choice, we should choose right.