Have you ever felt too progressive for conservatives, but too conservative for progressives?
Too often, political questions are framed in impossible ways for the faithful Christian: we're forced to choose between social justice and biblical values, between supporting women and opposing abortion. As a result, it's easy for Christians to grow disillusioned with civic engagement or fall back into tribal extremes. This state of affairs has damaged Christian public witness and divided the church.
The authors of this book represent the AND Campaign, which exists to educate and organize Christians for faithful civic and cultural engagement. They insist that not only are we called to love our neighbors through the political process but also that doing so requires us to transcend the binary way the debates are usually framed. In simple, understandable language, they lay out the biblical case for political engagement and help Christians navigate the complex world of politics with integrity, from political messaging and the politics of race to protests, advocacy, and more. The book includes a study guide for classroom use and group discussion.
When we understand our civic engagement as a way to obey Christ's call to love our neighbor, we see that it is possible to engage the political process with both love and truth—compassion and conviction.
"Compassion (&) Conviction provides a reconciliatory prescription for a political environment infected by discord, animus, and extremism. This book stands as a clarion call for a movement founded on the principle that every human being carries the image of God and driven by a passion to do justice and change the world. This is not just a must-read, this is a must-do!"
Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, lead pastor of New Season Christian Worship Center, Sacramento, California
"At a time when America's body of Christ is as divided as our nation itself, the AND Campaign has presented a much-needed model for those who aspire to stay true to biblical principles—all of them!—in their civic engagement. Free of partisanship and cultural bias, this book provides a framework that, if adhered to, could lead to unity, healing, and perhaps even revival. Just in the nick of time, the AND Campaign has given us a gem, a light, a guide for how Bible believers can accurately represent Christ in a public square so desperately in need of our true and faithful witness."
Chris Broussard, broadcaster for FOX Sports, founder and president of the K.I.N.G. Movement
"People commonly lament our age's political division and tribalism. Some have lived at the poles of political discourse, and they've forgotten their way back to a commonly shared center. Finding our way back to one another can only happen if we learn not to bifurcate our politics. We need a movement to reunite ourselves, reunite with our neighbors, and reunite political ideals that never should have been divided in the first place. That reunion will feel like a strange new land for many us, so we need guides, pathways, tools, and discipline for talking and working together for the common good. You hold in your hands a creative struggle for wholeness, just the kind of help we need in our age."
Thabiti M. Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church, Washington, DC
"The partisanship, point-scoring, bickering, and pettiness that mark Christians' engagement with politics often belies the message of hope offered in Jesus. If we, as a church, do not learn how to seek the good of our neighbor and the broader world without being beholden to a particular political party, we will, however inadvertently, preach a false gospel in our actions and public life. Because of this, reconstructing a political theology that is wise, humane, just, and deeply biblical is the most urgent calling facing the church in America today. The AND Campaign is a leader in this vital work of reconstruction, casting an alternative vision for a politics rooted in faith, hope, and love. In this book, Giboney, Wear, and Butler provide basic tutoring in civics, Scripture, race, justice, and political engagement that will help us, as a church, find a more faithful and truthful way of walking as Christians in this world of political turmoil. I want every church in America to give an ear to these men as they help us walk the way of Jesus as a community and a political people."
Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary
