The Ballot and the Bible Quotes

“Many of us have learned that reading in community is better. We learn more about God when we gather together and listen to each other’s questions and insights. But we also read better in the communion of the saints: drawing on the diverse perspectives of Christians throughout time and across geography, focusing especially on those voices that have gone unnoticed or ignored.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Rather than claiming that our side is taking the Bible seriously and the other side is playing fast and loose with it, we need to be honest about which verses we prioritize and why, and reason together (with people who disagree with us) about what God demands of us in the here and now.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“We struggle to find the space between avoiding all biblical arguments and identifying one policy as the only Christian one, but such space exists! Citing biblical passages about caring for the poor and vulnerable in support of tax policy that is intended to serve those people can be a faithful way of engaging in public life. Claiming that your tax policy is the only Christian option is not.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Biblical language is powerful. It gives our words a sense of transcendence and moral obligation—and that can be easily abused.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Yet we can strive, perhaps above all else, to accurately describe the positions of other Christians, assume good motives from them until given evidence otherwise, and take seriously their concerns rather than ridiculing them.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“This is an uncomfortable question for us to reflect on. When we read the Bible, where do we naturally see ourselves? Are we willing to be both comforted and confronted with the words of the Bible? Are we able to accurately determine who is playing what role? If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that communities can adopt the mantle of God’s chosen people to justify their sin, that people can see themselves as the victorious warrior of God or the righteous prophet when they are in fact doing evil, and that fallen humans are prone to manipulate and distort Scripture for their own purposes. We need to become practiced in recognizing the signs of who is playing what role. Who is sacrificing for others rather than protecting themselves? Who has been shaped by suffering rather than comfort? Who keeps Jesus at the center of their political theology, and who sidelines him for their own glory?”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“We have biblical warrant to speak firmly and passionately about people who misuse God’s name, abuse image bearers, or lead God’s people astray. But we cannot claim prophetic fire without also claiming prophetic humility: “Woe to me!” Isaiah cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 6:5).”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Biblical scholar Jonathan Pennington calls the Sermon on the Mount the “founding document” for a vision of flourishing for the new community of the church.25”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“The Bible is not a free-floating book of ageless wisdom, an interesting historical document, or a weapon that can be put in the service of any political goal. The Bible is a gift from God to the church, given for a particular purpose: to shape that community into the kind of people who can fulfill their commission to make disciples of all nations and steward God’s good creation, anticipating its final redemption.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“What is government? What is the
relationship between theology and politics? How should Christians think about their political participation? These questions
typically get lost in our conversations. We jump into the juicy fight of the moment, whip out our favorite Bible verses, and completely forget to ask if we even agree on the nature of human government or the relationship between the church and earthly governments.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Rather than throwing up our hands and abandoning the church or throwing ourselves into reviving the institution at any cost, we can share Bonhoeffer’s faithful posture. We can withstand hearing the word against us because we know that our witness does not stand or fall on our own strength—instead it relies on the mighty hand and outstretched arm of God. The church lives in the midst of dying, because God is faithful to his people.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Earlier in his 1932 speech, Bonhoeffer recounted a man telling him matter-of-factly, “The church is dead.” Bonhoeffer’s response was unexpected. The “faithless world” that is nevertheless “full of pious illusion” says the church is not dead but only weak and promises to serve it with vigor until it rises in power again. But the believer, he says, knows: “The church lives in the midst of dying, solely because God calls it forth out of death into life, because God does the impossible against us and through us.”6”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“This history of the Bible in American public life risks leaving us in a place of despair. We can feel defeated by reading about the endless times that Christians failed to hear the word of the Lord against themselves, about the ways that expediency and political power shaped interpretations more than faithfulness to God did.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“It is in Josiah’s interest as king to believe that God will allow Judah to flourish and prosper in spite of their sin. He wants to hear that even if they have broken the law, God will not punish them. It is incredibly rare—in biblical history and in our own history—to be able to hear the word of the Lord as a word against our own interests.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“But more than giving a pious scolding, Bonhoeffer described the perennial problem for the church’s relationship to political power: “We prefer our own thoughts to those of the Bible. We no longer read the Bible seriously. We read it no longer against ourselves but only for ourselves.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles does not separate the commands to build houses and plant gardens (that internal work of cultivation) from the command to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city.” The commands are intimately connected. The flourishing of a countercultural community is crucial for faithful witness in the world, in part because it provides a space for practicing that witness among brothers and sisters in the faith. Faced with a decision between culture warring and withdrawing, Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles gives us another way.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“And yet there is a pitfall on the other side, a pitfall that looks strangely similar to the “culture warrior” approach. Both approaches see the larger social and political world as external and “other” to themselves—one wants to fight, and the other wants to withdraw.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“In agreement with the philosophers, however, the Christian view of the good life is inescapably social. Augustine did not write about two kinds of people but two cities.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pet. 2:11–12).”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“It is important for Christians not to merely ask: What does “Caesar” require of me, and what does God require of me? They must also ask: What might my ultimate obligation to God require me to demand of Caesar? What might the redemptive narrative in Scripture demand of my political life? How might the Holy Spirit be moving in our political world today?”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“The coming kingdom of God demotes all earthly power. As many have said of New Testament political theology, “If Christ is Lord, then Caesar is not.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“We are “like coins that have wandered away from the treasury,” and the image stamped on us has been “worn down” by our wandering—so just as Caesar seeks the coins with his image, so too does God seek out those stamped with his image.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“As such, this story is less about justifying Caesar’s authority and more about emphasizing God’s claims over us. Early church theologian Tertullian said, “Thus, we render our money to Caesar and ourselves to God.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Some Christians today have warped that distinction into a different one: my inner piety is wholly distinct from my outer political action. On one hand, this is true and good: how you vote does not determine your salvation. On the other hand, it risks severing us into spiritual and political parts and ignoring the clear words of the Bible: faith without works is dead.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“If Christians want to have our politics informed by the Bible, we should not misrepresent ourselves in public by pretending we came to our positions apart from the Bible. Instead of treating the Bible like a trump card that invalidates all other positions or invoking divine support of our specific policies, we can faithfully engage in public with our own convictions and compassion for others who think differently.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“What do we say we want our politicians to believe or do or say, and what do we actually want? Is it appropriate for politicians to use biblical passages for political purposes? Is it appropriate for them to appeal to Christian identity without being committed to distinctly Christian politics?”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“He acknowledged that government policy alone could not solve the country’s problems and encouraged people of faith to join together in acts of kindness and courage, citing 1 John 3:17–18, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“He quoted C. S. Lewis, saying, “Christianity is not, and does not profess to have a detailed political program,” but also said that he hoped people of “good will” could pursue places of common ground on the basis of their religious beliefs.”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here

“While Revelation is unclear about many things, it is clear that Jesus Christ will ultimately exercise complete, just, and merciful rule over all creation, that God will dwell directly with his people and “wipe every tear from their eyes,” and that, in the end, God will make everything new (Rev. 21).”
― Kaitlyn Schiess, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here