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by Bruce Barron

Bruce Barron has a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Health and Wealth Gospel (IVP).

Generally, Christians should not form a third party. At this time, certainly not, for several reasons: public image, servanthood, competence, and effectiveness.

In my work as a congressional aide, I hear one recurring criticism of conservative Christians in politics: their dogmatic, self-righteous certainty. Christians overestimate their own political acumen, acting as if their spiritual redemption has also endowed them with superior political capacities.

The act of forming a political party would be a statement that both major parties are so misguided as to no longer merit our participation in them. Such an act would only compound the problem of Christian self-righteousness. Moreover, it would further the widely held and harmful public impression that Christians are entering politics not after the model of the Savior who washed feet, but in order to impose their dogmas on others.

At this point, a Christian third party would face the additional difficulty that few Christians have substantial political competence. Where Christians do display real abilities, in either governing or campaigning, they usually discover one more reason why a third party is unnecessary: they are recruited by the major parties, thus affording them ample opportunity for effective action.

I would be much less critical of the type of third party that coalesces around a core of issues and, wherever possible, endorses and works closely with major-party candidates. I believe the Right-to-Life Party in New York state generally functions in this way. However, a third party formed in defiant opposition to the two established parties would only confirm the general view of conservative Christians as self-assured triumphalists unable or unwilling to listen to other perspectives.

My goal in politics is to be a light and a caring servant who may, by God's grace, communicate a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to persons who do not yet know him. For all the reasons enumerated above, I do not see how political separatism would help to achieve that goal at this time.

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