Interview with Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff is a Christian philosopher and theologian. Here is an excerpt from a recent interview in Christian Century:

Q: You have argued that Christians (along with other believers) have every right to make religious arguments in the public sphere...can you explain?

Nicholas Wolterstorff: I think it is appropriate in our liberal democracy for Christians, along with adherents of other religions, to make decisions about political issues on the basis of whatever considerations they find true and relevant....Sometimes...these reasons will be distinctly religious reasons....Of course, if you want to persuade your fellow citizens who don't accept your religious reasons to adopt some policy that you favor, you will have to try to find some reasons that they find compelling.

I don't agree, then, with the view of many political theorists that when making up our minds about political issues or debating them in public, we have to appeal to some body of principles that we all accept....I don't believe that there is any such body of principles.

Q: In light of that stance, how would you evaluate the way that religious views and identities have entered into electoral politics in the United States in recent years?

NW: There are better and worse ways of employing religious reasons in deciding and debating political issues....The religion that politicians profess often seems to have little if anything to do with their political positions. Here's an example: it seems to me obvious that deep within Christianity and Judaism is the injunction to welcome the stranger; yet a good many of the recent crop of presidential candidates seem to have no difficulty at all fervently affirming their Christian piety while at the same time launching attacks on immigrants. They make no attempt...to show how these two fit together. I find myself led to conclude that it was not for Christian reasons that they adopted the immigration policy that they espouse. Their professed Christian piety is a mere add-on to a deeply entrenched nativism.

I think the fundamental considerations that we ougt to employ in debating political issues are justice and the common good....But I find, to my dismay, that when politicians do seem genuinely motivated by their religion, often their goal is not to secure justice and promote the common good but to secure power for their party. They try to use the levers of power for their own disadvantage.