Chosen Nations: Pursuit of the Kingdom of God and Its Influence on Democratic Values in Late Nineteenth-Century Britain and the United States

6. Political Liberty and Democracy: Legislating the Kingdom

6 Political Liberty and Democracy Legislating the Kingdom As illustrated in the last chapter, pursuit of the kingdom of God naturally led to political agitation. They disagreed, however, over the methods to be pursued in Christianising the nation; questioned the role of legislation versus conversion in furthering the kingdom; and debated the rightful role of the minister, the church, and the individual Christian in politics. Christian involvement in politics was not in itself new, the difference in the nineteenth century was engagement in politics as a means of transforming the social order. For all six, chosenness meant maintaining the Christian character of their nations and further permeating the national life with Christian concepts of love, service, and sacrifice. While Christianity had previously been used to uphold the divine right of kings, it led these nineteenth-century thinkers toward a purified democracy where the brotherhood of man united under the shared fatherhood of God. The Son of God was brought into harmony with contemporary views, as Jesus was reinvigorated as the ultimate democrat. They all promoted a new civic patriotism that made citizenship synonymous with Christianity. They endorsed democratic principles of the rights of man, freedom, and liberty, but reminded Christians that rights came with responsibilities. Christianity, in their eyes, upheld the sacredness of the individual while correcting its excesses and promoting social responsibility. When it came to politics, they were all deeply aware of the tensions inherent in the contradictory call of Christians to be in the world but not of it, to influence without being influenced, to be a people set apart while at the same time working their yeast through the whole of humanity. They also all recognised the limitations and dangers of politics as a means of transforming society. Still, they were politically naïve, as many failed to think through their political theory, and acknowledge that politics meant compromise.1 It is 185 often difficult to delineate where their faith influenced their politics and where politics influenced their faith. For the most part, the lines they drew separated ‘party politics’ from political engagement for social change, and moral issues from non-moral political issues. What constituted a moral question was left murky, and became murkier as these theologians expanded their views on the proper role of the state.2 The six drew different restrictions on political activity, largely out of the fear of politics tainting the church or dividing congregations. The British Nonconformists engaged the most in party politics, in part because their battles to protect religious liberty inherently tied them to the Liberal party.3 Westcott avoided all divisive controversies, both within the church and without. The Americans removed themselves from party politics out of respect for the federal separation of church and state, but spoke out on moral issues. American pastors had no legal limitations on their political speech at this time; Lyndon Johnson instituted his amendment to the tax code forbidding all non-profit organisations and churches from officially endorsing political candidates when he was a senator in 1954. When it came to promoting democracy, these social gospellers were a quantum leap ahead of their predecessors, as Maurice’s generation largely eschewed democratic values and feared mob rule.4 However, the same fears can be seen in how many of these thinkers promoted education for the masses, or in how some believed less advanced races needed education and Christianity before they could engage in democracy. Their pursuit of liberty and equality was tainted by the prejudices of their time. Their work to uplift democratic values in line with Christian principles, however, cannot be overlooked. This chapter will explore all of these tensions, discussing how these theologians navigated political mine fields in pursuing their vision of a Christian nation, and how they used Christianity to promote good citizenship and democratic values. 1. O.W. Bebbington, The Nonconformist Conscience (London: Routledge, 2009), 157. 2. Edward R. Norman, Church and Society in England, 1770–1970: A Historical Study (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 76–77. 3. Bebbington, 8–10. 4. Peter d'Arcy Jones, The Christian Socialist Revival (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), 23–24; Harold Underwood Faulkner, Chartism and the Churches (New York: Columbia University, 1916), Thesis; Edward R. Norman, The Victorian Christian Socialists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 22–24, 49–50; 186 | Chosen Nations Shaping the Nation’s Laws Wherever they stood on the political spectrum, or despite what political theories they subscribed...