October 17, 2007                                        News You Can Trust!!                                      Volume 7

Should church involve in politics?

Should churches participate in politics? According to the late Bishop Pātelesio Finau, yes. This is his comment published by the Taumu’a Lelei in June 1990.

  The prophets were very controversial people in their day. They hit out at the religious and social evils that people were forced to live under.

  Prophet means spokes-person, not fortune-teller. The one whom the prophet claimed to speak for was God.

 Prophets do not claim to be holier than others. They are frequently very wounded people, but like Jeremiah or Isaiah, they put their woundedness at the service of God.

Prophets were not popular with the rich and the powerful because they demanded justice from them and denounced their wrong doings. We do not find any of the prophets choosing to be prophets. They knew they were destined to make enemies, that they would be harassed and in many cases put to death. But God chose them and gave them courage to stand out against all manner of abuses and to speak his will in the face of the world and all its power.

Jesus the Prophet

The prophet is a teacher for God, a teacher of justice and truth. The teacher or the prophet par excellence is Jesus Christ. Jesus teaching made a deep impression on people because he taught them with authority and not like their own scribes. (Mt 7:28,29.)

  Everyone knows that Jesus gave his teaching mission to the apostles and the church. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore make disciples of all the nations; baptise them… and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always: yes to end of time.” (Mt 28:18-20.

  The prophets of Israel were a limited group with a special gift but in the new testament all those baptised in Christ share his teaching or prophetic role.

  For the Catholic Church, the Bishops are the official teachers. The faithful look to them for guidance and authoritative teaching in matters of faith and morals. And the church is rich in two thousand years of experience with the teaching of Councils, of Popes and Fathers of the Church and the bible is foremost her handbook.

The church stands for justice

We hear from time to time that the church should not meddle in politics. The church must not belong to a political group or party but the church must stand up for justice and denounce injustice.

Some would like to confine church ministers to church services where they are supposed to preach only “heavenly and spiritual gospels.” But prophets were never like that. It was not easy for Amos to say this message from God to the priests and church-goers of his day:

“Trouble for those who are waiting so longingly for the day of Yahweh!...

I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals. When you offer me holocausts, … I reject your oblations, and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle. Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, No more of you’re strumming or harps. But let Justice flow like water. And integrity like an unfailing steam.” (Amos 5: 18, 21-24)

The church prophet mission

Like the prophets before him, Jesus was down-to-earth. He sends us into the world  to transform the world. His teaching mission opened with:

“To bring good news to the poor,

to proclaim liberty to captives,

and to the blind new sight,

to set the downtrodden free,

to proclaim the Lords year of favour.” (Elk 4: 18)

The church mission is to inform and form people; to open their eyes and free them from their oppression. Sometimes because the church lives her prophetic role, she is persecuted and is known as the “Church of Silence”.

Sometimes she becomes worldly and is manipulated by the rich and those with political powers and cannot speak out for justice. Sometimes the church is frightened to be a prophet because she knows what happens to prophets. And in a conforming society, sometimes the church fears to be different. And Jesus is betrayed. And when will the Kingdom of God come?

Heavenly Christians

I think there are many heavenly Christians in Tonga and not enough Christians concerned with the real matters of this world and justice. No wonder Karl Marx, the father of communism, described the church that he knew as the opium of the people. The church talked sweet nothings to the pious and like the ostrich buried it’s head in the sand while the world went to hell around it.

The church can dope people into passively accepting the corruption and abuses of the powerful. Had the church in Marx’s day fulfilled her prophet role, the world might never have been cursed with the scourge of atheistic communism.

Let’s not domesticate the prophets nor tame the gospel. God demands that we be first just and honest: “What is good has been explained to you, man: this is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

We are going through a time of fast social changes in Tonga, of greater political awareness and constructive questionings. We all need to participate with concern and prayer for the church, for all our leaders and for the parliament that is about to begin.

We pray for all our leaders to be just and honest, and to feel for their people. Let’s pray for the church to be faithful to God in her prophetic role and to all the people she serves.

(from the Kele'a)