Politics Will Not Save Us

By Dr. Eric M. Wallace

I left for Israel right after the election. Being away from the cable news and the instant analysis gave me room to reflect on what the results mean. Republicans took a beating. Democrats won seats that had been Republican for decades. Democratic socialism, once on the margins of American politics, is now part of its everyday conversation. And some Black pastors have welcomed the results as a victory for our people.

I see two things in this election that both sides keep getting wrong.

The first is the belief that politics can save us. As I have argued in my books, it cannot. Politics is downstream from worldview. What a people believes about God, about human nature, and about right and wrong determines whom they elect and what laws they will tolerate. Change the ballot without changing the heart, and the next election simply swings the pendulum back.

Politics and law are different. Law sets the guardrails for our conduct. Politics is the contest over who gets to shape that law. God established the moral order and has written His law on the human conscience (Romans 2:14–15). Yet we keep pushing against His guardrails and reinterpreting them, many times to our own detriment. Even good law has limits. It can restrain evil, but it cannot change a heart. As Paul wrote, "if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (Galatians 3:21).

Conservatives need to hear this as much as anyone. Thomas Sowell taught us to think in terms of trade-offs rather than perfect solutions. Our task is to seek the best trade-off at the least cost in pain and sacrifice, and to be honest about who bears that cost. Anything we devise is limited and flawed because we are limited and flawed. Scripture warned us long ago: "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation" (Psalm 146:3). That applies to every party and every president, including the ones we vote for.

The second error belongs especially to the Black community. Too often we measure the success or righteousness of a policy by its perceived benefit to Black people rather than by the Biblical standard for all mankind. The question becomes "Is it good for us?" instead of "Is it right?" Scripture forbids that kind of partiality: "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:15). If partiality corrupts judgment when it favors the poor, it corrupts judgment when it favors our own.

This is the oldest error there is. In the garden, the serpent first questioned God's boundary, asking, "Did God actually say?" Then he promised that we would "be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:1, 5). Whenever we set aside God's standard and judge good and evil by the interest of our people or our party, we repeat Eve's mistake.

That is why the growing appeal of democratic socialism should concern Black Christians. Its advocates seek power at the ballot box, not by revolution, and they deserve honest engagement. But the promise has always tempted us: that the state can supply what only God and a faithful people can. The early church in Acts held everything in common, but no one compelled them. Peter asked Ananias of his land, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?" (Acts 5:4). What the Spirit produces in willing hearts, no government can produce by decree.

So, what did this election prove? Not that one party has all the answers. It proved that the church has lost its influence on the nation's worldview, and too often on the worldview of its own members. We need a great awakening of the church.

America has been here before. The Great Awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did not begin in legislatures. They began with repentance and preaching, and they reshaped the culture. The Second Great Awakening helped fuel the movement to abolish slavery, and in that same era Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. Conviction came first; the change in law came after.

The next awakening will not begin in Washington either. It will begin when pastors recover their confidence in Scripture's authority and preach it without regard to party. The church does not need a better candidate. It needs to remember its calling. When the church is awake, it can say the same thing to every party and every president: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). When the church sleeps, it hands that hope to the state, and the state cannot carry it.

Dr. Eric M. Wallace, author of the new book, The Heart of Apostasy: How The Black Church Abandoned Biblical Authority for Political Ideology--And How to Reclaim It, is a trailblazing scholar, dynamic speaker, and passionate advocate for faith-based conservatism. With a distinguished academic background and an unwavering commitment to biblical truth, Wallace has become a leading voice challenging cultural and political narratives that conflict with a biblical worldview.

Wallace holds postgraduate degrees in biblical studies (M.A., ThM, Ph.D.), Wallace is the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Union-PSCE (now Union Presbyterian Seminary). His scholarship and ministry experience equip him to address today’s most pressing sociopolitical issues through the lens of faith, reason, and historical accuracy.