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Many organizations and individuals produce materials to support Christians in thinking about the sciences. I have a friend who disclosed that she has some concerns about many of these organizations, however, because they get “too political,” regardless of their political orientation. I get it. Not only does politics immediately divide and distract, it can be alienating if the political issues are foreign to my life and priorities. It is for these reasons that, as a general rule, Blueprint 1543 avoids weighing in on political issues.
Nevertheless, I understand the pressure that many of my colleagues feel to say something about timely issues that relate to the sciences, matter to Christians, but may seem a bit political. People want to know what Christians who are also scientists (or at least science-informed) might think about environmental care, disease-prompted church closings, and the relationship between human sex and gender. These sorts of issues could arise at any point in the past 100 years, and don’t have to be politically partisan, but they have become hot topics in recent years because of their prominence in political disagreements. And if science-informed Christians fail to weigh in because they want to avoid politics, doesn’t that mean that Christians are failing to be as constructive contributors as they could be in live public debates? Surely those of us who think the sciences are important tools for informing good understandings and decision-making shouldn’t shrink from a topic because it has gotten “political,” right? These are tough questions, and maybe Blueprint has erred on the side of caution.
I am helped in thinking about these matters by a distinction that is not commonly made in popular discourse. The distinction is between governance and politics. By governance I mean the passing and enforcement of laws and policies in order to maintain a functioning society. Governance takes place at local, county, state, and national levels. Depending upon the type of government, lots of different roles make governance work well or not. City councils, school boards, police departments, district attorneys, senators, judges, governors, and presidents all have roles to play in governance.
By politics I have in mind the strategies and machinations that enable people or parties to gain and retain the positions in government. Politics also includes how people in government go about getting things done that are not, strictly speaking, governance. The way political party leadership cajoles members into supporting a bill is not governance but politics. The way executives persuade the public to support their proposed initiatives is politics. At times the boundaries between governance and politics get murky, but I find the conceptual distinction helpful, nonetheless.
One way for Blueprint 1543 to navigate the question of when it is we should or shouldn’t avoid a particular hot topic is to first judge whether the topic primarily concerns governance or politics. Usually there will be no good reason for Blueprint 1543 to wade into the muck of politics, including whether particular candidates have good character, are properly motivated, and what they will and won’t do and have and haven’t done. Whether the strategies of a political party are cunning or lamentable, is not something Blueprint needs to take a stand on. We can generally stay out of politics.
At times, however, it may be irresponsible to work too hard to avoid issues related to governance. Because governance may impact the actions and values of Christians even on the local level, governance bears directly or indirectly on most spheres of life. Likewise, because we live in societies in which we have civic duties to elect — or to be — contributors to governance, we have responsibilities to think well about how the Christian faith might guide our viewpoints in those spheres, and how the sciences might help, too.
Even if Christians try to remain distant from such matters, there is no avoiding them. Governments take steps that impact how and when we gather and worship as churches, and how we can share the Gospel of God’s love to the world. For instance, I see whether it is protected speech for someone to share their Christian beliefs with another as an issue of governance. It only becomes “political” when politicians or their supporters use this issue to try to gain or retain power. Some of these issues that directly impact the life of the Church may have little important connection with the sciences, but as the COVID pandemic displayed, sometimes the sciences matter in big ways.
Likewise, when it comes to how to shape the public institutions that impact ourselves and our children, the sciences and our Christian values may be relevant. Take a topic related to local governance in the United States: whether primary schools should require students to have computer tablets to access the Internet. Such a topic is a great example of one that requires a thoughtful combination of theologically-informed reflections on what it means to bring up children well, the place of parents’ authority in making decisions for children, and scientifically-informed evidence concerning the social and intellectual impacts of digital media on children. There may not be only one Christian viewpoint, but surely particular educational values will be guided by how we conceptualize what it means to live a good life — a theological idea — and what evidence shows is the impact of various technologies on developing minds — scientific findings.
Blueprint 1543 will not seek out controversy to get attention. That isn’t our style and it also runs the risk of being unnecessarily divisive. Unity in Christ is a high biblical value. Nonetheless, if we shy away from all topics that might be legitimate issues of governance, we will be shirking our responsibility to help Christ-followers bring the sciences to bear on life’s biggest questions.
