by Tucker Young
One of the first things John Rustin told me when I was exploring the idea of an internship at NC Family was that the key to effective political advocacy and good public policy is relationships. This summer, shadowing and learning from the NC Family team, it has been abundantly clear that this is the engine of NC Family’s work. Whether learning that Jere has his own “office” at the General Assembly due to his consistent presence at the General Assembly, or seeing Mitch walk around legislative offices asking legislators and staff about their weekend, how they are doing, or the deliciousness of pickles– I quickly realized relationships are of first importance to NC Family.
Reading over bill text and voting reports, listening to committee meetings and chamber voting and debate sessions, and interacting with legislators and staff, I have been immersed this summer in the political and legislative process. Politics, and especially our American pluralistic political sphere, is a melting pot of different emotions, motives, personal experiences, and reason. While the legislature is unfortunately hyper-partisan, that does not mean that each individual’s ideology is their identity. Each legislator carries with him or her a unique set of personal experiences, passions, perceptions and misperceptions, and logical reasoning that all inform their policy decisions and political worldview. And as someone who puts a premium on abstract logical thinking, it has always been hard to not divide people into neat and binding ideological categories, but to understand disagreements in light of their personal and holistic factors. Experiencing North Carolina’s political arena this summer, I have realized that the personal reality is much more complex, beautiful, and hopeful.
Shadowing John, Jere, and Mitch is a study in the necessity and beauty of human relationships. Each legislator in all their convictions is not a clonal manifestation of some perverted ideology or obvious truth, but a person. Hearing about their experience and relationships with legislators and staff, John, Jere, and Mitch have shown me the importance of not abstracting policy or ideology from personal reality. Advocating for God’s truth and design begins with knowing a person in all their different life experiences, emotions, and convictions. It begins with a relationship.
There is a lot of heated and animated disagreement in the legislature (though civil discourse and good will often go unreported), and American politics in general are filled with uncompromising conformity to policy conclusions and contempt for one’s ideological enemy. My expectation was to enter in and enjoy this emotionally charged environment as a kind of soap opera, learning to defeat different policy arguments and positions with better thinking, reason, and principles. I did get to experience my fair share of impassioned speeches, anger, screaming gallery crowds and various political insults. But I quickly realized that ideological combat and triumphalism is divisive and contrary to any meaningful cultural and spiritual healing.
The Biblical vision of political and cultural engagement is not primarily ordered towards ideological victory and prominence, but the change of hearts. Jesus makes this clear. He does not say, “You will know my disciples by their political ideology”, but, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Regardless of their convictions, there is no legislator, policy maker, or citizen who does not possess the indelible mark of God’s image:. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Romans 2:15 says, “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them”. Whether having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or not, each person has an awareness of God’s law and a need for His truth. As followers of Jesus who have experienced his loving compassion, we ought to extend this compassionate goodwill in genuine empathy and understanding to those who need His Truth. NC Family understands this: the relationships and experience with legislators that John, Jere, and Mitch have worked so hard to develop and maintain are steeped in love and goodwill– eagerly willing that legislators and the citizens of North Carolina live in the truth of Christ, because that is where true life is found.
American politics and culture are polarized and confused: hatred and disordered thinking are prevalent. But it has been beautiful and inspiring to see an exception: NC Family stands separate from such a culture, with a mission to proclaim God’s truth in all the heart and depth of His love. Political and cultural confusion cannot be healed through ideological victory or empty kindness, but through the example of Jesus Christ who spoke all of God’s truth in the fullness of love.
CS Lewis writes: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
Every person has a story, each an eternal destiny– and every policy and ideological belief, however guided, misguided, or passionate, is ultimately indicative of an innate need for a relationship with the Savior Christ. Working alongside NC Family’s team this summer, I have come to realize that the confused and polarized space that is American politics is not due simply to the rejection of an ideology but due to broken and wounded souls. The broken political square is not separate from the cultural ethos but indicative of a heart-level sickness of the American people. John Adams said as much, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
As Christians, our engagement with politics and response to this complex mesh of reason, emotion, and personal experience ought to be unique. For we are in this world, but not of it. Consistently repeated in team meetings and conversations, Jesus’s example to speak the truth in love is the antidote to enmity and confusion and the Biblical method for engaging in politics. The balance of these two principles of Jesus’ message is what makes NC Family so successful in working and advocating for policy founded in God’s truth. The healing and well-being of our country and state depend on this message.
Matthew 5:13-16: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
NC Family Policy Council is a faithful partner of The Bolick Foundation.