Pursuing the Prophetic over the Partisan in a Polarized Age

[Editor’s note: this article is based on a presentation given at the Institute on Religion and Democracy on 1 October 2025.]

To understand our current time, it is helpful to gain perspective from another time—one in which faithful people struggled to distinguish between covenantal faithfulness and a religious language that validates political power. The period of Micah’s prophecy in the eighth century BC reveals such confusion, when Judah’s leaders conflated divine favor with political power. Today, as in Micah’s time, the greater challenge may not be the clash of empires but the distortion of faith into ideology. The task, then and now, is to discern the difference between spiritual and secular history—and to live faithfully within both.

Israel’s history after Solomon’s reign is marked by division and decline: the split into two kingdoms around 930 BC, the destruction of Israel by Assyria in 722 BCE, and the eventual fall of Judah to Babylon in 586 BC. These are the familiar themes of secular history—empires rising and falling, the strong doing what they can and the weak what they must. 

Yet beneath the surface of geopolitics lies a spiritual history. The Assyrians failed to capture Jerusalem in 701 BC. We do not know the specifics, but we do know that King Hezekiah heeded the prophet Micah, repented, and restored faithfulness to the covenant (as recorded by Jeremiah a century later, Jeremiah 26:19). Micah’s ministry stands as a moment when prophetic truth outweighed political power, at least for the moment.

Micah’s most famous declaration—”Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8)—was not a moral aphorism but a rebuke. The people had ceased acting justly, showing mercy, or walking humbly. The prophet indicted the nation’s leaders for turning religion into a tool of materialism and control, stealing land from the poor, and corrupting justice in the courts. 

Fuller Seminary scholar Leslie C. Allen observed that in Micah’s time, “there was little sign of the fellowship of the covenant being worked out in the community” (Allen 1976, 254, emphasis added), because “prophetic faith conflicted with established religion and its vested interests” (Allen 1976, 294). The result was a domesticated religion that always agreed with political power. 

Allen summarizes: “This dramatic contrast between creed and conduct exposes the weakness of the covenant concept held by Micah’s rivals… Their easygoing idea of religion was to chain God to their service and yet themselves be free of solemn responsibility” (Allen 1976, 299). When faith ceases to question power, it becomes idolatry. Faithful patriotism, by contrast, submits politics to the prophetic discipline of repentance and humility.

America is not Judah, and our moment is not Micah’s. Yet the parallels are instructive. The question is not whether we are on the right side of history, but whether we are participating in His story, the spiritual history that God is writing in our time. In an age defined by polarization, it is tempting for the ethno-religious majority (of any country) to define against others rather than by the values that the faith stands for. 

Faithful patriotism begins with self-examination: are we a covenantal people in community, working out our faith together, or are we simply reinforcing the religious nationalism of our tribe? While some are called to be prophets, foreseeing the future, all believers are called to be prophetic—to remind the nation of justice, mercy, and humility before God, and to live the commands of the faith, of loving God and neighbor.

Prophetic citizenship requires ongoing prayer, and a plan. Faith must inform civic imagination. Christians in political parties have the opportunity to model a pluralism of common civility—engaging with empathy and energy. Such engagement might include the following in America:

• Holding regular prayer gatherings grounded in Psalm 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
• Publishing manifestos or convening conferences that articulate how a “fellowship of the covenant” through prophetic citizenship might heal the polarization of the American experiment.
• Forming or joining organizations that practice prophetic faith through civic action.
• Encouraging bipartisan renewal—for example, maybe the Republicans should become the Christian Democrats of Europe, and maybe the Democrats should rediscover, and include “Blue Dogs” in their party.
• Exploring new movements or parties that serve as a prophetic bridge rather than a partisan wedge.

These are not political programs so much as postures of faith—habits of engagement that place the prophetic above the partisan.

Conclusion: Covenant and Pluralism

To live as a covenantal people is to discern spiritual history amid secular change. It begins with prayer, matures through planning, and is tested in how we treat one another. By this will others know the love of Christ—by our love for fellow believers (John 13:35). 

The story of Roger Williams reminds us of our prophetic citizenship, as well as our path forward. In 1636, Roger Williams was condemned by Boston authorities for having a different understanding of the political implications of their common theology. Williams believed, for example, that forced worship stinks in the nostrils of God, that women had rights, that the King couldn’t give away Native American land, that one should not take oaths in God’s name, etc.—the Massachusetts magistrates did not. Just before he was about to be sent back to England for a trial that would likely result in the death sentence, one of Boston’s magistrates warns him.

John Winthrop, like Hezekiah, chose prophetic power over the political power that he embodied. And Roger Williams fled West to found Rhode Island; after buying land—from his friends, who also happened to be Native Americans—to found Providence.

This example of love across politics, and especially of a pluralism of mutually respectful engagement, still calls us forward. When we celebrate the 250^th anniversary of America’s founding next year, we would do well to remember the 390^th anniversary of Rhode Island’s founding and the prophetic path to pluralism that it still begs of us.

References

Allen, Leslie C. 1976. *The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah*. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Biblica, 2011.
Micah 5:2; 6:8.
Jeremiah 26:19.
Acts 20:27.
John 13:34–35.
Psalm 19:14.

Chris Seiple is a senior fellow at Love Your Neighbor Community and the University of Haifa.