To Caesar what is Caesar's: Prayer and Politics

Our faith points us to people, not institutions, to act and make a difference.

By Mark McDermott

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            Elections aren’t the most appealing event of the year. They feel like a doctor’s visit: it could be “good” news or “bad” news, but either way it’s inconvenient and expensive, and someone else ends up telling us what to do. As tempting as it is to ignore, government is far more involved in the daily lives of its citizens than had ever been possible or even conceivable just a few generations ago.

            Many other things have changed: the idea of a “divine right” has fallen out of fashion in public statements, and today much is made of the “separation of church and state.” But our coinage declares “in God we trust” and the Presidential Oath of Office is administered with a hand on a Bible. Many believers pray that God’s will be done in legislation or elections and for the guidance of leaders by their religious precepts. What is to be made of Jesus’s exhortation to “render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God?”

            Fortunately, the Gospel brings good news even to politics: regardless of what happens in government, what we do as individuals must not change. Jesus’s teachings and salvation history show us that there is a fundamental disconnect between the power of faith and the power of government.

• Government requires the approval of others; faith demands the approval of God alone.

• Government operates on the subordination and obedience of the bureaucracy and the citizens; faith draws upon the power of God to turn will into action.

• Government leads by mandate; faith leads by inspiration and example.

• Most of all, government takes and redistributes but does not make anything of its own; faith becomes manifest in the gift of self.

            God’s authority is of the spirit, but government is purely of this world, a creation of humanity that mainly seeks to manage human imperfection. For that reason, we cannot expect government to be inspired to moral action in the same way individuals are: a government cannot love because it both needs human approval and has nothing of its own to offer. In other words, the government always gives “as the hypocrites do” – standing on the street corner, blowing a trumpet before itself, to win that approval and reelection it needs to survive. That is not how Christ calls us to serve with humility and love.

            Government can of course have a moral impact, but without its own soul, its intentions are amoral – it simply goes where it is pointed. Our role, then, is not to look for a policy or a candidate. Rather, we recognize that true power ultimately lies with individuals. Regardless of who holds office, we must seek to cultivate belief among our fellow citizens. Only when voices on a policy are strong and clear enough will they be recognized. Moreover, when a policy wins the support of the people, that action is no longer taking against their will – it is realizing the will to give.

            We would never expect a person to be able to track and deliberate every single cause there is to intervene in, so we cannot expect a government managing millions of different perspectives and intentions to do so either. Therefore, our prayer should not be for candidates or parties that are contained in that amoral system. The mindless machine of our institutions may belong to Caesar, but every human heart belongs to God. We must pray and advocate for the conversion of hearts so that individuals are inspired to believe and join our cause. This uses government for what it can do well: organizing the efforts of people with a common interest who may never meet. Whoever wins office, we must stoke that interest with the fire of faith so that what is not done by government can still be chosen by the people. Through the bond of our belief, we can steer the government, without having to worry about who takes the ballot.