Stephen W. Plunkett
Wipf & Stock, 112 pages
Reviewed by Frank C. Ehman Jr.
Steve Plunkett’s new book has come along at just the right time to help Christians deal with what it means to follow Jesus Christ during such a contentious presidential election as is playing out in a world that has “gone awry” in so many ways. His book, “Faith and Politics in a World Gone Awry,” is relevant for this time that we are living in, and I recommend it as an important way to invest your time.
What Plunkett has to offer could do us a lot of good at this point in our history as leaders and future leaders in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and as U.S. citizens. Plunkett makes the case that the principal issue we need to be clear about before we go to vote can be summed up this way: “Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is the basic commitment on which all other loyalties and allegiances are based.” When our allegiance is to Jesus Christ, our faith in Christ will be the foundation for all of life, including the way we make our political decisions — especially during hard times.
As a good pastor, he does not talk about how we are supposed to vote, or tell us who we are supposed to vote for, or proceed with a political rant; instead, he does a superb job of examining the biblical and theological foundations upon which we stand as people of faith when we make our political choices.
This book will challenge you, encourage you and make you think about what is important to you and why. Here is one of the author’s questions that I believe is worth wrestling with: “What does the gospel say to people who want to make sense of today’s political landscape not first and foremost as Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or progressives, or even true-blue patriotic Americans, but as disciples of Jesus Christ?”
How does your trust in Jesus Christ inform your political opinions and decisions? Plunkett declares that a basic job description for Christians is “to live from the perspective of a worldview that is true to the gospel, and to participate in the body politic in ways that are faithful to the God who has claimed, loved, and redeemed us through the sacrifice of the cross.”
This is a thought-provoking book, with helpful questions for discussion at the end of each chapter. Reading Plunkett’s book did me a lot of good! I have been given a surprisingly meaningful perspective on my participation in public life. I now think of voting as more than my civic responsibility; I think of it as a stewardship issue (my word, not the author’s). I want to use this resource, this precious gift of the right to vote, primarily to demonstrate my faith in God’s love. I do not want to be so cynical, so beaten down by the perversion of the political process to think that my vote will not make any difference, or that voting is a waste of time. My prayer is that we will learn to integrate faith and politics in order to guide the choices that we make in our public lives so that we can secure “a future with hope” for the next generation.
Frank C. Ehman Jr. is pastor emeritus of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Flower Mound, Texas.
