Christian Realism & Faithful Disagreement

From 2007 to 2024 alone, according to Pew Research Center’s religious landscape study, the percentage of U.S. adults identifying as religiously unaffiliated increased 13 percent while Christians decreased 16 percent. Political polarization has skyrocketed: a 2022 study revealed that 72 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats perceived the opposite party as more immoral than other Americans, a stark increase from 47 percent and 35 percent in 2016. Views on the role of religion in politics are similarly divided: almost two-thirds of Americans state that churches and places of worship should refrain from political engagement, while 36 percent say they should share their views on socio-political issues.

The state of American pluralism begs the question: how can Christians faithfully live alongside those who reject God? And can they offer biblical reasons to justify laws while respecting others?

Ultimately, the Gospel is public truth, not private piety, and so the Christian should use biblical reasons in public justification. The Christians also should support the right of other citizens to offer reasons from their own perspectives – Christian or not – since they recognize, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14, that “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

This affirmation is a Christian commitment, not a concession to secular liberalism: the Christian seeks to respect other citizens’ conscience, dignity and autonomy while recognizing that common grace enables cooperation despite deep disagreement.  

We see this understanding of the biblical text in Christian Realism. Joseph Bottum, Director of the Classics Institute at Dakota State University defines Christian realism as follows:  

There does exist a general definition of his Christian realism. It’s a political theory based on three Christian ideas: that we are basically sinful, that we are free because made in the image of God, and that we are called to love God and our neighbor. From the difficult combination of these truths comes an interest in the balance of power and a demand for humility in policy goals—along with a sense that pure realists have missed the genuine call to the good, and pure idealists have missed the genuine depravity of human beings.

Derived from theologians like Augustine, Luther, and Reinhold Niebuhr, Christian Realism seeks to understand politics and social realities in light of humanity’s inherent sinfulness. It focuses on “specific moral goals (usually justice) that are present in Christian ethics.”

While America’s liberal democracy traditionally may not fully affirm this Christian Realist interpretation, it adopts its own view of the same political realities and accordingly establishes principles of mutual respect and cooperation. Specifically, the foundational idea undergirding liberal democratic thought is a commitment to public reason. As Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership Kevin Vallier explains in Convergence and Consensus in Public Reason, laws are justified only when “every reasonable member of the public must have good reasons to endorse the laws … of their society if they are to be treated as free and equal.” Similarly, 20th century political philosopher John Rawls writes that citizens should treat each other as morally rational citizens with “a capacity for a sense of justice and for a conception of the good.”

We see support for these principles in Scripture. Genesis 1:27 declares that we are made in the image of God. Traditional Christian thought affirms God has true knowledge and is cooperative in His triune nature, and so the Christian affirms that humanity is imbued with the same capacities. Romans 2:15 states that moral law is written on the hearts of unbelievers, enabling them to discern basic moral principles. However, unlike the secularist, Christians believe that sin taints humanity’s sense of justice and understanding of the good, and so apart from the Spirit man cannot know or do what is good and just.

Christ calls the Christian to love his neighbor (Matthew 22:39), while the apostle Paul exhorts Christians to “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of [their] time. Let [their] speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:5-6). Christians can faithfully support liberal democracy’s ideal of cooperative pluralism.

Some liberal theorists argue that citizens can only offer reasons in lawmaking that are intelligible and accessible to others. For example, if John argues for an abortion ban, he may appeal to scientific reasons about how abortion may be harmful to the mother, since regardless of Sally’s beliefs, she can evaluate and understand John’s reasoning. However, it is challenging to see how citizens can arrive at this consensus, given society’s diversity of religious, moral, and scientific views. The Christian Realist recognizes that human sinfulness can impair this system of shared reasoning.

So how can Christians morally defend the right of others to disagree? The Christian can respect the non-Christian’s disagreement as understandable in light of their worldview and systems of reasoning. The Christian is therefore operating within liberal thought, for laws are justified if each reasonable citizen has a reason, drawn from their own perspective, to support it.

This interpretation of liberal democracy can sync with Christian Realism. The Christian works idealistically toward the good of society and the establishment of just laws. At the same time, the Christian realistically understands that due to sin the non-Christian cannot embrace the same reasons as the Christian.

Christians support pluralism and diverse public reasoning in lawmaking, not as a liberal compromise but rather because they know the non-Christian’s knowledge of truth is marred due to sin: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Christians, therefore, should firmly advocate for biblical truth in the public square, while showing grace to those who disagree and reason without the “light of the world” (John 8:12).