Politics—A Part of the Gospel Commission?
ACCORDING to Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne and former prominent East German clergyman, “it is a heresy to call politics dirty, a business with which one soils his hands.” In a 1989 interview, he said: “Politics is a reality of life and therefore a part of our gospel commission. We must rise to the challenge. In a positive way, we must infiltrate every political institution, from labor unions and associations to political parties, creating in these movements and parties a foundation of Christian substance out of which individuals can come forth to take the lead in promoting German and European politics.”
The following quotations from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a leading German newspaper, show that many European clergymen—both Catholic and Protestant—share Meisner’s view.
“Only six days after his election [October 1978], he [the pope] announced that as an East European he did not intend to accept the status quo in Europe. . . . Some took it to be a sermon, but it was a political program.”—November 1989.
“In some places [in Czechoslovakia] the church won high esteem as a pioneer in the upheaval. Students at the seminary for priests in Litomĕr̆ice, a northern Bohemian cathedral town, . . . led last November’s nonviolent revolution.”—March 1990.
“The weekly prayer for peace in the [Protestant] Nikolai Church, which for ten years attracted little attention, suddenly became a symbol this year of upheaval, of the peaceful revolution in the GDR [German Democratic Republic]. . . . Countless clergymen and congregational laity regularly take part in the demonstrations held afterward.”—December 1989.
In his interview Archbishop Meisner also noted: “We cannot wait for Christian politicians to fall from heaven. . . . I never weary of encouraging young Christians . . . to get involved in political life [or of] . . . telling senior citizens: You must not allow an election to pass by without getting involved.”
Accordingly, 19 members of the East German Volkskammer (parliament) voted into office in March 1990 were clergymen. Religion was also well represented in the cabinet. Of one of its three clergymen, Minister of Defense Rainer Eppelmann, an avowed pacifist, the newspaper Nassauer Tageblatt wrote: “Many consider him one of the fathers of the peaceful revolution.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Eastern Europe, numbering into the hundreds of thousands, rejoice at the increased religious freedom they now have. But they are not using it to get involved in political or social controversies. In harmony with the gospel commission stated at Matthew 24:14, they are following Jesus’ example of shunning human politics, all the while zealously preaching the good news of God’s Kingdom as mankind’s only hope. The clergy of Christendom—whether in Eastern Europe or elsewhere—would be wise to act similarly.—John 6:15; 17:16; 18:36; James 4:4.