What would Jesus ask a Democrat?

Dave Crofts

Today I'm giving you the final instalment in a little series we've been doing over the last couple of months to think about what Jesus would ask a person who holds a particular viewpoint. We've considered "What would Jesus ask a materialist?" "What would Jesus ask a multiculturalist?" and many others - which you can view on our website.

And today we're asking "What would Jesus ask a democrat?" That is, someone who believes strongly in democracy as the solution to the world's problems - not a Liberal Democrat or a member of the Democrat party in America. Someone who thinks that democracy is an ideal - a system that should be used all over the world to bring fairness and equality.

But what is democracy? Here's a dictionary definition:

democracy (n.) The doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group.

However, I think Abraham Lincoln put it better:

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people."

Basically, in a democracy - whether it be in a national system of government or just the family deciding what to watch on TV - everyone gets a say, and everyone's say is of equal value. And whatever most people say, whatever the majority decide, that's what goes.

It's the system of government most common across the Western world, including our own country. But what would Jesus ask someone who is a strong advocate of democracy?

What would Jesus ask someone like Francis Fukuyama, an American writer and political theorist, who wrote a book called The End of History? In his book, Fukuyama's basic theory is that the world is getting more and more democratic - more and more countries are adopting democracy as the way to run things - and that this is the final phase of the world's political development. Democracy is seen as an ideal, the best way of doing things. We might come up with better ways of making it work, but we won't come up with a better system. And when everyone's in a democracy, that will be the end of political upheaval and change - the end of history.

Fukuyama takes an extreme view - but there are plenty of people who see democracy as the solution to the world's problems. If we let the majority decide, the majority will benefit. We'll have less poverty, less war, less social inequality.

So what would Jesus say to those people?

Well, firstly, I think Jesus would say that there is a lot that is good about democracy. The ideas of fairness and equality fit well with the Christian worldview - God loves and values everyone equally, and he always acts with justice and fairness.

But I think Jesus would want to ask some questions of anyone who idealises democracy. I think he'd ask this:

Can we rely on democracy to always get it right?

It's interesting that if you go on the Internet to look for quotes about democracy, there are as many that are critical or cynical about it as there are in favour of it. And I think that's because, in people's experience, democracy doesn't always get it right.

You only have to look at the history of the twentieth century, which is littered with examples of democracy getting it wrong - the most spectacular being the democratic election of the Nazi party to power in 1930s Germany. The people of Germany chose their leaders, and as it turned out, they made a tragically bad choice. Just because most people think something is right, doesn't make it right.

And experiences like that that have led people to opinions like this:

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

Thomas Jefferson

That's a pretty cynical view from a man who is often regarded as one of the fathers of the world's foremost democratic state. Oscar Wilde, parodying Abraham Lincoln's definition of democracy, said this:

"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."

Oscar Wide

So I think Jesus would ask a democrat whether we can always rely on democracy to get it right. And then I think he'd ask this:

If not, why not?

Why is it that democracy, which seems so fair and just in theory, doesn't always get it right? Why is the majority decision not always the best one?

Some of democracy's strongest advocates have suggested reasons why democracy isn't perfect. Here's what Ghandi said:

"The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within."

Mohandas Ghandi

The spirit of democracy has to come from within - from within each individual person in the democratic system. People need to be right on the inside. Compare that with these words of Jesus:

"What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

Jesus, Mark 7:20-23

Jesus is saying there that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart - not the lack of a decent political system. What the Bible calls sin. So the final question I think Jesus would ask a democrat - and the one I want to leave you with this afternoon to make you think and perhaps prompt some discussion - is this:

How can we solve the problem of human evil/sinfulness?

And that's a question to which Jesus himself offers a uniquely satisfying answer.