2021: A Year in Review
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

  • Voices
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Members
    • Covenant Partners
    • Issue Statements
    • Governing Board
    • Careers
  • Programs
    • NC Interfaith Power & Light
      • NCIPL Overview
      • Faith in Action NCIPL
      • NCIPL Articles
      • NCIPL Resources
      • Upcoming Events for NCIPL
      • Contact NCIPL
    • Partners in Health & Wholeness
      • PHW Staff
      • Mini-Grants
      • PHW Collaborative Pledge
      • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
      • Mental Health Advocacy
      • BIPOC Mental Health Grant
      • Growing Communities of Inclusion: A Faithful Response to HIV
      • Healthy Aging
      • Citizen Science
      • PHW Articles
      • FAQs
  • Priorities
    • Racial Justice
    • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
    • Gun Violence Prevention
    • Criminal Justice
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Public Education
    • Farmworkers
    • Legislative Advocacy
    • Christian Unity
    • Peace
  • Events
  • Resources
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Publications & Reports
    • Raleigh Report
    • Lectionary
    • Sermons
  • Donate
  • Council Store
  • Show Search

Search NC Council of Churches

Hide Search

Democracy Under the Reign of God

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director · November 1, 2017 · 2 Comments

As I continue to follow court cases addressing Gerrymandering at both the federal level (Gill v. Whitford) and in North Carolina (Common Cause v. Rucho), along with the latest move by the North Carolina General Assembly to make judicial elections more partisan, I despair for our democracy. I’ve spoken at press conferences, sat on panel discussions, done interviews, and lain awake at night thinking about the three legged stool that is our democracy and discussing the many ways it is wobbling in North Carolina. I’ve also lain awake thinking about a faith-filled response in times such as these…

For starters, it’s helpful to remember that our faith is in God; our faith is not in nations, government systems, elected officials, or economic structures. Those things are all tools we use in pursuit of God’s call for our lives, the call to love God and love neighbor. Clearly some systems enable us to do that better than others, but we must always start with God’s claim on our lives and evaluate the systems of governance and economics through that lens. When we start with God’s claim, we sometimes assume a different posture than the one thrust upon us by politics and economics. Starting from God’s directives also keeps us from making personal political strategy and economic policy, which can often cause knee-jerk reactions to the person rather than careful deliberation of the policy.

The Affordable Care Act is a great example of confusing the policy with the person.  As we have learned, some of the people who voted for the person who succeeded President Obama in the White House did not know their health insurance is nicknamed, “Obamacare.” They did know that the Affordable Care Act allowed them to acquire insurance that had previously been unavailable because of pre-existing exclusions or because it was simply unaffordable at their salary level. Promising to “repeal Obamacare” created a personal reaction to a policy matter and occluded the reality of what is good about the Affordable Care Act and what needs to be remedied. In a losing game of “dismantling the master’s house with the master’s tools,” opponents to the replacement plan nicknamed it, “Trumpcare,” again confusing the policy with the person.  Few of us covered by the Affordable Care Act (I am one) would claim “it’s just right,” but some parts of it are good and ought not to be repealed or sabotaged.

When we start with the need–access to affordable health care–and craft a policy to meet that need, we start with a different set of premises. For Christians, the premise is straightforward–Jesus was the original universal health care provider. A quick glance at the Gospels will provide a litany of healing narratives, including the story of the Canaanite Woman who pointed out to Jesus his own blind spot, thus opening his eyes to the rights of everyone to flourish (Matthew 15:21-28). Anyone working to insure that everyone has the ability to flourish into the fullness of their God-given gift of life is doing the Lord’s work, regardless of that one’s name.

There’s a little story found in both Mark (9:38ff) and Luke (9:49ff) where some disciples encounter a person doing the Lord’s work, though he is not known to them as a follower of Jesus. So they said, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us” (emphasis added).

In other words, focus on the issue. People working on God’s issues are on God’s side. Of course, insurance, health care, and healthy environments are a complicated matter, but when we focus on the issue as refracted through the lens of faith, we start our discussion from a very different place and we might craft a policy that comes out with a very different ending. We praise those who work toward that ideal and we call out those who don’t–not from a political perspective, from a justice perspective. We may find the one with whom we disagree politically is the one moving toward God’s justice. In fact, Richard Nixon’s health care plan was much more comprehensive than the Affordable Care Act in promising insurance for all. Who knew?

By grounding our discussion in our faith claims, we’re not “preaching about politics,” we are proclaiming the Gospel, which is a highly charged activity. Jesus wasn’t crucified for praying too much. He was executed as a criminal of the state. It is not work for the faint of heart. But in this age of polarizing politics, we must refract the issues confronting us through the lens of faith. Only then do the political, economic, and sociological norms that define our lives fade into the background and make room for God’s truth. Scripture is ripe with prophecies, narratives, parables, and epistles that offer a lens for how we live and move and have our being in these days.

Filed Under: Blog, Homepage Featured Tagged With: Elections, Good Government, Healthcare Reform, Redistricting, Religion & Society

About The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director

Jennifer is a native of South Carolina and an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church. She loves South Carolina, but has managed to spend all but ten years of her adult life in North Carolina. Those ten years were spent pastoring United Methodist churches across the Upstate. She attended Duke University several times and in the process earned a BA, double majoring in English and Religion, a Master of Divinity, a PhD in religion, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies. Prior to coming to the Council, she spent 16 years as the United Methodist Chaplain at Duke University, where she also taught undergraduate and divinity school classes, served on committees and task forces, and attended lots of basketball games. Jennifer has two children, Nathan, a software developer who lives in Durham, and Hannah, a student at the University of Tampa.

Reader Interactions

More Like This

Politicians’ fear: Too many votes
Election Machinery in High Gear
Churches’ Watchwords: Every Vote Counts!

Comments

  1. Gail Kelley says

    November 7, 2017 at 8:41 am

    Totally agree with your views and call to take action for justice sake. Brave to speak out on this issue.

    Gail Kelley
    Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
    Raleigh, NC

    Reply
  2. Renee Hayes says

    November 1, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    Thank you, Rev. Copeland for hopefilled words in the midst of all this.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anonymous comments or comments that target individuals will not be posted (please include your first and last name). All comments must be on topic and respectful. Comments will not be posted until they have been reviewed by a moderator. Comments do not reflect the positions of the NC Council of Churches.

Footer

Contact

NC Council of Churches
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

Facebook

Partners in Health and Wholeness

Featured

Democracy Under the Reign of God

Latest Tweets

We are hiring! Join an incredible and dedicated team, @healthandfaith, working directly with faith communities and health-related resource partners across NC. Visit ncchurches.org/caree… for more info! pic.twitter.com/yYi1…

About 7 hours ago

We must #ExpandMedicaid in North Carolina. Lives depend on it. twitter.com/healthac…

About a day ago

We have supported reproductive choice since 1970. "To see that now, 50 years later, my 26-year-old daughter has fewer rights around reproductive choice than I had when I was 26? We are going backward and that is unconscionable,” said Jennifer Copeland. newsobserver.com/new…

About 3 days ago

#SCOTUS has overturned Roe v. Wade, making it crystal clear how much #CourtsMatter. Reproductive choice is a healthcare decision and women should make those decisions about their own bodies. We stand by those words today.

About 5 days ago

We affirmed in 1970 that reproductive choice is a healthcare decision and women should make those decisions “without embarrassment, excessive cost, and unwarranted delay.” We stand by those words today.

About 5 days ago

Follow @ncchurches

Latest Tweets

Greetings! Be sure to stop by our table at the Western NC Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church at Lake Junaluska this weekend! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/30bk…

About 2 weeks ago

Hello twitter family! Be sure to stop by our table at the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church in Greenville, NC starting today! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/l6X3…

About 2 weeks ago

Our mini grant cycle is now open!!! pic.twitter.com/eyRp…

About 3 weeks ago

RT @faithleadership Faith coalitions are addressing the opioid crisis by providing resources, connections and a destigmatizing vision. lght.ly/45iam80 Featuring: @okconfchurches | @ODMHSASINFO | @healthandfaith | @ncchurches | @DukeTMCI | @shannon_fleck

Last month

Join us for Sacred Conversations: Older Adults - Fraud & Scams on Friday, June 24th from 11 AM to 12 PM and learn to recognize common scams targeted towards older adults and how to protect yourself and those in your faith communities. ncchurches.ourpowerb…

About a month ago

Follow @healthandfaith

Latest Tweets

RT @scennetwork1 Join us for Season 2 of @CJYpodcast! We spoke to Catherine Coleman Flowers, one of the founding mothers of Environmental Justice from the South, about the lessons learned from her activism with the civil rights movement to the modern EJ movement. #SouthernVoices #CJY #Podcast pic.twitter.com/TzEr…

About 4 hours ago

RT @scennetwork1 We thank everyone who joined us for our first in-person convening since the pandemic started! We had a fantastic time and had over 30 organizations from the Southeast represented!🎉 pic.twitter.com/1KYc…

About 4 hours ago

RT @scennetwork1 We made the news last week! NC Faith Leaders Call on the U.S. to Pay 'Fair Share' for Climate-Related Loss! Read the full article here: publicnewsservice.or… pic.twitter.com/nltj…

About 4 hours ago

RT @cleanenergyorg Our fourth annual “Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast” report examines the region’s electric power sector to answer: are the SE's largest utilities on track to reduce carbon emissions enough to avoid the worst of the climate crisis? 🧵 [1/5] cleanenergy.org/blog…

About 6 hours ago

Faith Leaders Call on U.S. to Pay Fair Share for Climate Related Loss #USFairShare Click to listen - 2min w/Rev. Malcom @mtmalcom & Rev. @Susannah_Tuttle: shar.es/afbjPy @scennetwork1 @uscan @WEDO_worldwide @ActionAidUSA @AlabamaPJC @foe_us @UCSUSA @ClimateNexus

Last week

Follow @ncipl

Latest Tweets

Copyright © 2022 NC Council of Churches · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design · Hosted by WP Engine