Dr. Franklin Pyles, President of The Christian Missionary Alliance in Canada, has made justice and compassion a front and centre issue for the church in the coming years. He is calling C&MA congregations to action in the local community as well as on the national and international levels.

Such a focus and calling raises the question: How should Christians and Christian congregations engage in public policy debates and processes?

Two Levels

This question can be answered on two levels. If you were to ask it of a political consultant, he or she would list such activities as the following: Define the issue(s) with which you are concerned (poverty? foreign aid? the conditions of aboriginal peoples? tax equity? end-of-life issues?).

Define your positions on these issues, identifying what changes in existing public policies or laws you would like to achieve. Define the policy and decision-makers in government (federal? provincial? municipal? elected? unelected? candidates aspiring to election?) you need to influence. Seek opportunities to meet the appropriate officials and politicians and present your case. Enter into coalitions with others like-minded to increase your influence. Organize and/or participate in public hearings and meetings, forums, talk shows, and media events to increase public support for your positions.

In other words, be persistent and skillful in using the tools democracy gives to us all to influence the public agenda - freedom of speech, freedom of association, and opportunities to persuade others to use their voices, positions, and votes to effect change.

But there is another level on which to address this question of how Christians should engage themselves in influencing public policy in the public square. Jesus himself addressed it when he gave instructions to his earliest followers as he first sent them out to do 'public work'.

Jesus' Guideline

During the first year of his recorded ministry, Jesus taught his disciples in private while he himself conducted the public part of his ministry. His disciples accompanied him and observed his public activities, but they themselves had little or no public role. (Believers first need to spend time with Jesus in private and in association with their fellow believers, becoming well grounded and instructed in their faith before stepping into the public square.)

Eventually, however, the day came when Jesus sent his disciples out to do 'public work' in his name - to cast out the spirits of evil, to heal the sick, and to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. But before doing so, he gave them this explicit instruction recorded in Matthew 10: "Behold I send you forth as sheep among wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and gracious as doves."

Wise as Serpents

As most Christians know, in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, 'the serpent' is the symbol of the devil - the personification of evil. So Jesus is saying in effect, 'Be wise (shrewd) as the forces of evil.'

He himself demonstrated this wisdom on many occasions. One such occasion was when he was questioned by his opponents on the subject of taxes (a matter of public policy).

"Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?" they asked him. The question is asked, like most questions raised by the media or your opponents in the political arena, not for the purpose of getting an answer but for the purpose of getting Jesus into serious political trouble.

If he answers 'Yes', he will alienate his own followers who hated Revenue Rome and its tax collectors with a passion. If he answers 'No', he will be in even worse trouble because to deny Caesar's right to collect taxes was a crime (treason). So what does he do?

Notice firstly that he doesn't answer right away. (Don't feel compelled to answer loaded political questions immediately - and if you don't know what to say, say nothing.) Instead, he asks if anyone in the crowd has a coin. When the coin is duly produced, Jesus points to it and asks a question of his own - "Whose inscription is this?" "Caesar's" they reply. To which he then responds with the shrewdness of the serpent, "So render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."