Why I'm On The Left As A Christian

Again, my name is Chris Butler.

I am husband to one amazing leader who released me to skip her fundraiser this weekend to be here. So, shout out to anybody who goes to WeSchoolAcademy.com and supports my wife Aziza

I am father to 6 incredible children, one of whom (my oldest son Corban) is here with me.

I am also the lead pastor in a great community of saints called Chicago Embassy Church Network and I thank them for being so generous with my time.

I am also the co-host of the Church Politics Podcast

which is presented by the AND Campaign where we discuss politics, policy, and current events not like democrats or republicans, but as Christians.

And I’m here today to pretty much do the opposite of that, so…thank you Preston for really pushing the brand.

So, I was originally going to be a Republican, but it didn’t work out.

Seriously, I was bitten by the political bug at a young age...circa 1998, 1999.

That means that the first President I was aware of was Bill Clinton.

And I honestly could not understand for the life of me why my otherwise conservative Christian family and community elected him and then re-elected him.

He was precisely the kind of heathen they were raising me not to be.

See if you White Evangelicals want a real taste of cultural conservative fundamentalism, you need to try Black Pentecostal Holiness.

This was also - as some in the room might be old enough to remember - the age of George W. Bush’s “Compassionate Conservatism”

Y’all, I was deconstructing in the late 90s and early 2000s because I was definitely going to leave these dirty Democrats and join the Republican Party.

But, as a Black kid on the West Side of Chicago, I couldn’t find a Republican nowhere hidden.

So I got involved in the only politics I had access to: left of center, Independent Democratic politics of Chicago. (that’s independent as opposed to machine democrats)

I share this background with you because understanding how I became a part of this political coalition is important to understanding why I have remained.

Three things keep me here: MY PEOPLE…GOD’S PRIORITY…OUR POLARIZATION

MY PEOPLE Keep Me Here

In the 1950s and 60s Democrats (led by Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson) embrassed the cause of Civil Rights while segregationists (typified by Senator Strum Thurman) made a rightward retreat into the Republican Party.

Since that time, Black support for the Democratic Party has remained high with over 80% of Black voters typically supported the Democratic candidate in presidential elections.

And when God birthed my soul into the world, He intentionally selected this brown skin and this round nose and delivered the whole package to my mom and dad in the Democrat stronghold of Chicago’s West Side.

Like the rest of the cosmos, the situation of my existence is not the outcome of random selection, it is the product of intelligent design.

One of the things I have come realize is that We cannot push so hard against political and ideological tribalism that we forget that we worship a God who

established a people in 12 distinct tribes

And handed them in the Decalogue a command to honor Father and Mother which includes not only a charge to take care of them in old age, but to deal well with the legacy and inheritance they leave behind.

A God who incarnated among the Jews and dealt intentionally, not just with “gentiles”, but identifiable Samaritans, Serophenicians, and Romans.

And who in Revelation 7 celebrates ethnic diversity at the consummation of all things.

Friends, groupthink is bad. But, community consciouness is not.

It’s not determinative, but what my grandmother and my neighbor think about politics and voting matters to me.

And I think that’s a good thing in God’s sight.

God’s Priority Keeps Me Here

If politics is the use of power and authority to allocate resources, enforce rules for the benefit and essential function of the society; then I would submit to you that there are political issues that are more important to God (and therefore should be more important to God’s people) than other issues.

Am I saying that God is a partisan? No.

But just because God is not partisan does not mean that God does not have priorities.

We discover these issues of priority in the scriptures..

We discover these issues in Old Testament prophetic tradition which calls us to personal piety and a God honoring social righteousness and justice.

We discover these issues of priority in the Wisdom literature that continually call for good personal decision making alongside kind and compassionate culture making.

We discover these issues of priority in the preaching and practice of Jesus who long before his human birth planted His liberative redemption mission statement in the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah.

What are these priority issues? You search the scriptures. Tell me what you hear in the scriptures?

The language of Economic Fairness or Free Markets?

An urgency around Welcoming the stranger or Securing the Border?

A heart for Sharing with the poor or Profits for the shareholder?

A passion to pursue Liberty for captives or Liberality for corporations?

A firmness around Opposing the heavy hand of oppression or shortening the long arm of the government?

I know what I hear in the Holy Scripture and so I am more than willing to be a part of any political project that is in pursuit of those biblical values which seem to feature prominently in the text.

Our Polarization Keeps Me Here

Two years ago, I finally found the Republican Party and the conservative movement.

I ran for Congress (funny enough, the original campaign plan was to try to get to the left of a weak incumbent on economic issues)

But, a few months into the campaign, the Dobbs decision leaked and put a spotlight on my previous undiscussed pro-life position.

Suddenly, long-time political allies were disavowing me. And I was invited on Fox & Friends to speak at the March for Life.

A lot of people - on both sides of the isle - suggested that I should change parties.

But, why should I have to change parties in order to live out a political orientation that I didn’t have to change communities to develop?

Yes I developed my social justice chops at the feet of the Revs. James Brevil, Al Sampson, and Jesse Jackson.

And, I learned the sanctity of human life from my vote blue no matter who Grandmother

I learned the tactics and techniques of progressive direct action reading Saul Alinsky, and Martin King… and training at the Midwest Academy, the Industrial Areas Foundation, and the Wellstone Institute.

And I got my love of country from a black Air Force veteran who I had the privilege of calling my dad.

My cousin Harold taught me to protest.

And my mother taught me to respect authority.

Yes, I support school choice. Not because I believe “free market” principals will fix education, but because I am engaged in a broader struggle for liberation and self-determination.

I speak freely about how eugenics informs the abortion industry which targets people of color…

And I also talk about how that same philosophy informs our unjust healthcare system which is designed to prevent the poor from accessing high quality care

Changing parties only exacerbates our divisions. I would rather live in the tension and challenge polarization.

Helping my old progressive friends remember that there are “conservative” impulses within communities that form the left’s base…and helping my new conservative friends embrace that progressive thinking sometimes arrives at policy conclusions endorsed by the right.

And so I remain. To Honor My People…In Harmony with God’s Priorities…To Help Our Polarization.