There’s a new Christian political organization in the US that will prioritize public service to the less fortunate.
Leading the organization is Michael Wear, a former faith adviser of former president Barrack Obama. Wear launched on October 17 the Center for Christianity and Public Life (CCPL) to train Christians in public life while prioritizing politics centered on public service. CCPL will emphasize on the personal character of Christian leaders and service to people living in poverty.
“For far too long the ‘right’ Christian politics has meant you hold the right position on a narrow set of issues. And you could be the worst kind of person, but as long as you had that position you could be advancing a Christian politics,” he said. “We think that has failed the country.”
Faithfulness is either for all of life, including politics, or it just doesn’t make sense to people anymore. And it shouldn’t. —Michael Wear, President, Center for Christianity & Public Life
CCPL has already raised $1 million, and targets to secure $6 million in the next three years. In its website, the organization’s mission is “to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good.” It will focus on public influence and spiritual formation in training Christian leaders who are serving various populations in the country.
The center will start a fellowship program in its first year for a dozen civic sector leaders who want to apply their Christian faith more deeply in their professional and personal lives. “We anticipate that participants in this program will range from postgrads to CEOs, and include individuals from various generational, racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Wear said.
Wear emphasized that CCPL is not a partisan group, instead, it will include Republicans and Democrats. It organized a young professionals network last year that included five Senate staffs: three Republicans and two Democrats.
“The answer isn’t to try to muster up some new political platform that can be used to determine who’s in and who’s out. Again, that has been the problem,” noted Wear.
Wear hopes that CCPL will bring out leaders who will promote a healthier politics for the good of all citizens. He argued that there is a disconnect between American Christians’ faith and their political engagement.
“We have Christians who are disintegrated,” Wear said of Americans who say things like ‘It’s great to be gentle with the person at the grocery store and your spouse, but gentleness in politics is naive.’
“That’s not something that stays quarantined in the public part of ourselves,” he pointed out. “That creeps back into people’s private lives.”
Wear maintained that, “Faithfulness is either for all of life, including politics, or it just doesn’t make sense to people anymore. And it shouldn’t.”
