It is a great privilege for me to have this opportunity to address you on the subject of Christian democracy in Europe. The United States still does not have such a movement, and we stand in great need of one. You are leading the way and providing great encouragement to those of us outside Europe who are trying to develop Christian-democratic movements. Furthermore, you are revitalizing a movement in countries where most of the original Christian-democratic parties have lost their distinctively Christian identity. Therefore, with many Christians in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, I thank the Lord that he has called you to this responsibility of renewing and advancing Christian politics at the beginning of the 21^st century.

            The need for mature Christian political service is urgent. The fact that religions are the deepest compelling motives of human life, including political life, is increasingly apparent everywhere. In the last forty years we have all been witnesses to the growing influence of Islam and particularly of radical Islamism at the same time that Christianity is growing throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Only those still gripped by the myth that modern rationalism will lead to the demise of religion can fail to understand today’s global dynamics. And what is also clear today, if it was not obvious earlier, is that Fascism, National Socialism, Communism in its many guises, and every form of ideological nationalism all function, to some degree, as substitute religions, as false religions. This is certainly true of our civil-religious nationalism in the United States.

            There could not be a more urgent time than now for the exercise of mature Christian political action, regardless of the odds against it. Christians need to expose modern political ideologies for what they are while also repenting of the sins of ancient and modern crusaders who have tried to advance Christianity by force and at the expense of others. The apostle Paul urged us to seek to live at peace with everyone insofar as it is in our power to do so (Rom. 12:18). Jesus called on his followers to be like their Father in heaven who gives rain and sunshine to the just and unjust alike (Matt. 5:45). It is not the responsibility of Christ’s disciples to pull up the tares in the wheat field of God’s world. Instead, we must leave every form of final judgment in God’s hands (Matt. 13:24-30, 37-43). The biblical witness calls Christians to a responsibility of seeking the political well-being and equal treatment of everyone—of all our neighbors. This requires a politics of service in response to God’s call to do justice—a justice measured by God’s own mercy, patience, and gracious care of a world in which his rain and sunshine fall on everyone alike. The first and most distinguishing reason for a Christian political movement, then, is the witness it bears to the Creator and Redeemer of the world by the way it works to do justice to everyone in public life. It is in this spirit that I am thankful to be with you on this occasion.

            You have invited me to comment in particular on the document you are drafting titled “A Christian-Social Contribution to Europe,” and I am delighted to do so. It is a strong statement that deserves hearty endorsement and implementation. It can be of great encouragement and influence both here and outside of Europe.

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The Preamble

            The political context in which you are working to bring forward a Christian perspective on politics and government is not entirely unique to Europe. The quest for individual autonomy coupled with faith in technocratic solutions to economic and social problems also drives our pragmatic politics in the United States as it does increasingly in many parts of the world. And yet, as you point out, problems continue to multiply faster than solutions. Millions of relatively free people do not enjoy the freedom they have, and billions of people do not even have freedom from hunger. Moreover, citizens in many of our countries increasingly distrust their political leaders because those leaders have promised so much and delivered so little. Environmental degradation, starvation, disease, social antagonism, and warfare make a mockery of the modern faith that humans can create their own freedom, prosperity, and happiness. Consequently, instead of experiencing deeper human solidarity throughout the world, we experience growing tensions among different religious, ethnic, and national groups.

This is not what God created us for, but it is the consequence of our human effort to try to shape the world and human society in defiance of God’s purposes and standards for us. Our obligation to love and serve God above all, as good stewards of one another and of the whole creation, is an obligation to love and do justice to our neighbors. Therefore, as your draft document points out, the Christian religion cannot be only a private, individual matter. The Christian way of life has a public character, which has everything to do with the exercise of our civic responsibilities. This does not imply that governments should try to compel adherence to the Christian faith or provide privileges to Christians in violation of the political common good. Your statement makes this clear and I agree with it entirely as a matter of Christian principle, not as a matter of merely accommodating ourselves to the Enlightenment’s restricted ideal of tolerance.

A second distinguishing feature of a Christian-democratic approach to politics, then, is the recognition of God-given normative standards that guide our shaping of society and government. Humans are not the autonomous creators of society, free to disregard God’s norms of justice, love, and good stewardship.

I would encourage you, then, to emphasize that it is God’s normative standards and merciful patience that call us and enable us to do justice and that hold us accountable at all times and in all places. Christians themselves do not always respond obediently to God’s call to do justice in shaping their political systems even in societies that have a Christian heritage. In the United States, Christianity is thoroughly mixed up with an American civil-religion that generates pride, arrogance, and pretentiousness, often leading to the violation of Christian social principles. Moreover, in many countries throughout the world, there has been little if any Christian heritage. Nonetheless, God also calls those governments to do justice, and Christians in those countries also need to discover how to help shape a more just political order. Therefore, you might say at the end of the document’s Preamble, “Hence, followers of Jesus Christ bear a responsibility to challenge what is unjust and to help shape a more just social and political order in the countries of Europe and among the nations of the world in accordance with Christian-social principles.”

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Christian Understanding of the Person

            The next section on the human person is excellent and you might look for a way to emphasize the multi-generational character of “being made in the image of God.” That would deepen the meaning of the social character of our identity as God’s creatures bound to one another in service throughout our generations. It also helps to highlight the fact that human society extends beyond families, clans, and nations. Family life, as the document properly says later on, “is the cornerstone of society.” But my family or my nation can be absolutized or turned into an idol that keeps me from recognizing my mutual interdependence with, and obligation to serve, fellow human beings in other families and other nations around the world. Furthermore, the multi-generational character of the image of God throws a strong light on our obligation to our own grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will suffer the terrible consequences of our social, political, economic, and environmental sins, or who may benefit from our responsible actions today.

            A third unique characteristic of a Christian-democratic approach to politics should be the treatment of every person anywhere in the world as a creature made in the image of God, as someone with the same dignity that everyone else has, a meaning and identity that should never be denied or trampled on in order to achieve human-created goals.

Emphasizing the multi-generational identity of the image of God is also essential if we are to understand the global character of the Christian community itself, made up of people from every tongue and nation. The deepest bond that should unite Christians around the world is our community in Christ in whom we are being restored by the power of the Holy Spirit into the true image of God. Your national and European (and my American) identities are secondary in that respect, even if our most immediate political responsibilities are found in the states of which we are citizens. A Christian-democratic approach to politics and government, therefore, is not something for Europeans only but something that Christians in states throughout the world should be developing as part of their response to God’s call to do justice. Christians, wherever they live, should be working to strengthen the kind of political solidarity that comes as a consequence of governments establishing public justice for the common good.

The fourth distinguishing characteristic of Christian-democracy, therefore, should be its global perspective and concern, motivated to achieve a Christian-democratic International. In this case, the International is not a union of workers, or of capitalists, or of greens, but a cooperation of Christian public servants seeking to do justice to all their neighbors in their respective states and through international institutions.

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Society and Government

Your stress on the “freedom and integrity of social and cultural institutions” could not be more important in face of the individualistic and totalizing ideologies that continue to dominate life at the start of the 21^st century. Political communities require the protection of individual rights and freedoms, to be sure, but there is more to human society than individuals protected by government. Political communities also require a public-legal solidarity that assures every citizen of distributive justice, but there is more to human society than political solidarity. Justice for individuals and for the political community can be upheld only if justice is done simultaneously to the social and cultural institutions that cannot be reduced either to contracts among individuals or to government departments and services. God, not government or free individuals, has created us with the responsibilities of family life, entrepreneurship, the arts and sciences, education, and more. These nongovernment responsibilities and related institutions must be recognized by governments and protected in public law.

The high importance of a Christian political movement, in the fifth place, therefore, should be evident from its unique, principled commitment to upholding the diverse social structure of society. Neither conservatives nor social democrats, neither totalitarians nor authoritarians are committed to such a purpose.

We in the United States especially need to hear what you’ve said about the economy, namely, that “the full personal, social and ecological implications of national and international market activity need to be recognized, instead of merely private or accounting calculations which do not totally take these implications into account. Inequitable and unfair patterns of distribution need redressing. Our emphasis,” you continue, “is therefore on the State’s concern with justice and right structures rather than economic performance alone.” We Americans pride ourselves on resisting big government and elevating freedom, but we typically overlook or reject the rich implications of social subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty (or diversified sphere responsibility), believing that market freedom will lead automatically to every social good. Moreover, around the world one can see that the pressures of market forces and technology are breaking down older systems of social solidarity, often without helping to build healthy, differentiated social patterns and strong political communities that can uphold their societies.

The sixth thing that is unique about a Christian-democratic program is its effort to uphold—all at the same time—economic justice, freedom of markets, and the protection of non-market responsibilities. There must be diversity and balance, freedom within the bounds of justice. Humans are complex, multi-dimensional creatures made in the image of God.

Let me turn now to the concluding section of your document with its seven guiding principles for Christian politics.

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Seven Guiding Principles

SOCIAL JUSTICE:   Justice, as you say, does indeed demand a “special concern for the needs of the poor, refugees, those who suffer, and the powerless.” And yes, this means that “governments have a special responsibility for those who cannot support themselves in their our own countries and abroad.” Yet, as the document says later on, in the paragraphs on “active compassion” and “empowerment,” government does not stand alone as the only institution responsible for those in need. Consequently, as you say later, “The government should motivate individuals, families, charities and other associations to active compassion,” and, “We will encourage active participation between the State and voluntary providers of services.” Perhaps, then, you could strengthen your statement about “social justice” by saying that in order for government to play its proper role in upholding justice for those in need, it should always partner wisely with other institutions and organizations that also bear responsibility to care for people in need. In other words, government’s concern for those with special needs should not lead it to act in ways that undermine the responsibilities of families, friends, churches, schools, hospitals, and social-service agencies or else government will not be doing justice. Or to say it in a different way, government’s responsibility to uphold justice is different from the responsibilities of compassion ministries, social service organizations, and families. What you have articulated here underscores the fifth and sixth characteristics of a Christian-democratic politics that I just summarized.

RESPECT FOR LIFE:  “The right to life is the most basic of all human rights,” as your document properly affirms. And this leads you not only to oppose indiscriminate abortion but also to call for government to protect those who are “infirm, mentally or physically disabled, elderly, or unable to speak for themselves.” In keeping with your first principle about social justice, you might then say in the next sentence, “Such respect for human persons requires the exercise of government’s careful partnership with nongovernment organizations and institutions to assure everyone of a decent quality of life and to meet the needs of those who do not have the essentials of life.” This underscores the unique Christian-democratic starting point that humans have been created in the image of God (see third point above).

In articulating this principle of respect for life you come closer than in most of the others to making policy proposals, such as prohibiting euthanasia and opposing the cloning of animals and humans. You might consider whether you could insert similar statements or policy suggestions at the end of the other six statements of principle.

PRIORITY OF THE FAMILY:  The family is the “cornerstone of society,” as the document states, particularly because the family is the place where children are raised from complete dependence as infants to adult maturity. The home, as you say, is “where children should learn responsibility, values and the proper ways of living as responsible citizens.” Government’s encouragement and protection of children, therefore, should be demonstrated by upholding the responsibility of parents to care for their children, including the parental responsibility to choose appropriate schooling for their children without financial or legal discrimination by government. This is all part of government’s obligation to uphold—to do justice to—the diversified structure of society in which humans exercise many kinds of responsibility before God.

RECONCILIATION:  Your statement is correct that working for reconciliation and healing is the responsibility of human persons in a wide variety of relationships and institutions. Since your document is primarily about political life and the responsibility of government, however, I think you can say more here. If it is government’s fundamental responsibility to uphold a just and peaceful society, then it must act to stop or restrain conflict and to promote reconciliation. Government, therefore, should make sure that various kinds of private and public reconciliation services are available to citizens. In some cases, government may have to require those in conflict situations to enter into a dispute-settlement process that is directed by a third party. All of this calls for the right kinds of police forces, judicial systems, and reconciliation services.

It is true, as you also say, that “humility, repentance, patience and forgiveness are political as well as personal values.” For this reason, strong court systems, independent arbiters, reconciliation boards, and fair elections are all needed to forestall conflict, promote reconciliation, and hold governments accountable. Furthermore, reconciliation is also a principle of justice for international relations. Reconciliation efforts are desperately needed today in many other parts of the world where violent conflicts rage. Yet reconciliation is also needed in non-violent conflicts over trade and other economic dealings among nations.

Your statement also says that the demands for reconciliation imply “a disavowal of all armaments whose use is incompatible with the pursuit of just peace.” Here you touch ever so lightly on the use of force, including military force, and I would encourage you to consider adding another statement of principle dedicated entirely to foreign and defense policies, international justice, and security. Your efforts need to have a definite orientation to these responsibilities of government.

I realize that in the European setting it may not be so easy to speak about a European foreign policy, since the European Union does not yet have an independent government authorized to conduct foreign and military affairs. It is also true that international relations among European countries are concerned largely with a federalizing process by peaceful means. Nevertheless, European countries do have police and military forces; many are members of NATO; many are playing a role in the Middle East and with countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. And even within Europe there are interstate security responsibilities. Thus, it makes sense that you should say something more about government’s responsibility for international as well as national security and defense.

With respect to all of these matters of retributive and restorative justice, security, and the just use of force, there is a seventh unique feature that should characterize Christian-democratic politics. It begins with the recognition that government does not bear the sword in vain (Rom. 13:4) but also that government’s use of force to restrain violence and to protect the innocent must be highly controlled and accountable. The aim is not mere punishment but reconciliation where possible, and even repentance on the part of unjust governments.

WISE STEWARDSHIP:  Part of what you have offered in the statement on “wise stewardship” is about the economy and government’s economic policies; another part of it is about environmental stewardship. It might be good to make two separate statements, one about the economy and the other about the environment. Let me add two further comments.

With respect to the environment, Europeans and Americans must increasingly take into account developments throughout the world that are aggravating environmental degradation. Americans, who are the greatest per capita users of nonrenewable energy, should be leading the way to the reduction of environmental damage. Together with the Chinese, the Indians, and others, Europeans and Americans need to work harder and faster, for the sake of all our global neighbors, to restrain irresponsible actions that are threatening the ecological health of God’s creation.

The importance of Christian-democratic politics in the world today is to show that humans are caretakers of God’s creation, not its masters. This should be the eighth distinguishing characteristic of a Christian political movement.

Second, in your statement about wise stewardship you conclude with a few suggestions of policy judgments, such as, “maintaining a sound currency against inflation,” discouraging dependence on the state welfare provision, and opposing gambling. You might also want to add a sentence in support of progressive tax policies; using taxes (as on gasoline) to put a premium on the conservation of nonrenewable resources; and perhaps supporting “employee stock ownership provisions” (ESOP) to give workers a greater stake in economic enterprises.

EMPOWERMENT:  Your final paragraphs about the differentiation of authority in society emphasize empowerment. And the principles operative in your statement are those of subsidiarity and sphere responsibility. This is the principled basis for the fifth and sixth distinguishing features of a Christian-democratic approach to politics that I articulated earlier. I applaud your work and would simply stress that speaking about the distribution of power and responsibility at different levels—between “larger” associations and “smaller and more local associations” as the document reads—can sometimes be misleading, particularly in federal political systems like the United States and the European Union. To say, for example, that a certain kind of governmental responsibility should be exercised at the local level rather than at the national or European federal level makes sense with respect to the distribution of political power. But it says nothing about the difference between the responsibility of government, on the one hand, and the responsibility of nongovernment organizations like families, churches, and businesses, on the other hand. If a responsibility belongs to the family, for example, it does so not because the family is “smaller” or “more local” than a state or federal government, but because it is the family and not a department of the government. That is a matter of sphere responsibility, not subsidiarity. Therefore, the most important distinction to make is between the different kinds of responsibilities that belong to different spheres of life—family, church, media, civil society organizations, the state, and so forth. Only on that basis does the subsidiarity principle become clear, namely, that responsibilities within a state, or within the economic sphere, or within a university should be exercised at the proper level within that sphere. The main point is that humans have been empowered—given different kinds of responsibility—by God. Governments don’t provide the original empowering but have themselves been empowered by God to exercise their own responsibility.

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Conclusion

The urgency of Christian political service both in your countries and in other parts of the world could not be more clear. The special calling and place of Christian-democratic politics in Europe and throughout the global village can, I believe, be articulated in the eight points already made.

1. Such movements bear witness to the Creator and Redeemer of the world by the way they work to do justice to every neighbor.
2. They recognize God-given norms that hold humans accountable in public as well as in private life.
3. They recognize and treat every person in the world as made in the image of God, as someone with the same dignity that every other person has.
4. Christian-democratic movements should have a global perspective, motivated to cooperate across national boundaries for the common good of all.
5. They are committed to government’s protection of the diverse structure of society, upholding the variety of vocations and spheres of responsibility that humans exercise.
6. They are committed to economic justice as a condition of market freedom.
7. Christian-democratic politics recognizes the special responsibility of government to protect the innocent from aggression and to seek reconciliation in the midst of conflict. Retributive and restorative justice calls governments themselves to humility and repentance.
8. Christian political movements should be distinguished by the way they demonstrate environmental stewardship in their statecraft, working to be caretakers of creation in contrast to those who act as if humans are the sovereign masters of this world.

As you go forward in your efforts here in Europe may God give you wisdom, patience, and endurance. We will be watching and eagerly learning from you. Go forward in peace and in the strength of the Lord of peace.

Speech on the Congress of the European Christian Political Movement, December 6-7, 2006, Brussels

by James W. Skillen, Center for Public Justice

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