Too much of our theology is influenced by America. Let’s look at the rest of the world

It was confirmed last week that Donald Trump will be visiting the UK on a second state visit. This event and the response to it confirm the unique and complicated place that America holds in the British political psyche.

No other modern elected politician has been granted a second state visit, meaning that in some ways this is a unique privilege. Yet it has been organised for a time when Parliament is not sitting, meaning that it is impossible for Trump to address Parliament.

While it is not guaranteed that a state visit includes a parliamentary address, some on the political right have argued that Donald Trump must be allowed this honour, in part because of the United States’ political importance.

America’s cultural and political influence

American political discourse looms large over British politics, in part because of the United States’ importance on the world stage but also because of its significant cultural impact on the UK.

I have grown up consuming vast quantities of American literature and media since I was a small child. This is an experience shared by many in my generation.

This is also true when it comes to Christian content. Most of the sermons I have watched on the internet and the books I have read are by Americans. In many cases, we knowingly take our Christian formative cues from Americans, which in turn means that we, consciously or not, associate America with Christianity.

21st-century British Christians are used to looking to America to teach us how to think. American politics also centres around Christianity in far more obvious ways than in the UK. Politicians and commentators far more frequently identify as Christians and quote the Bible in public.  

Both of these factors mean that British Christians wanting to think through how to engage politically look to America almost by default. Then some people take what they find most prevalently and apply it almost uncritically to their own context.

Others strongly dislike what they find and shape their Christian political thought as a reaction to what they perceive to be modern American Christian politics. Some try to sift through what they see in America, taking what they think works and discarding what they think does not. It is easy for all three to fall into the exact same error, however.

They frame their ‘Christian’ politics in response to what they see in America. America becomes the standard, both in a positive and negative sense. While they may still do biblical exegesis and political theology it fails to shake the American framework as the primary interlocutor.  

So how do we get out of this situation? If Christians are to do political theology well we must let scripture shape and shake our expectations to their cores.

We must be willing to let it challenge us. Perhaps the best way to break out of our limited framework is in our engagement with the rest of the Church and how they have navigated political issues.

Breaking out of our bubble

We must listen to both the worldwide Church and the Church throughout history.

I have spent the last few months in Cape Town, listening to and learning from Christians from all over Southern Africa. Their exegesis and experiences forced me to reassess some of my own assumptions and reengage with scripture.

By listening to Christians across the world and thorughout Church history have thought about politics and power we are forced to reckon with our own assumptions about politics and scripture.

We do not always have to agree with those we engage with, but by broadening the conversation we are more likely to see whether scripture is truly shaping us. We can see whether our beliefs are the product of a deep wrestle with God’s word or not.

A lecturer once asked me whether I was teaching the Bible or my framework, whether scripture was really in the driving seat of what I was saying or whether my own thoughts, correct or not, were twisting how I understood scripture.

In the same way, is the Bible shaping how we do politics — or is it our culture? A culture that, I would argue, has been shaped more than it should have been by America.