Three traditions that taught me why democracy is still worth defending
As Americans arrive at another Independence Day, it is worth asking a question that many people once assumed did not need to be asked: Is democracy worth defending?
The question feels urgent. Around the world, and right here at home, democratic institutions are under strain. Political polarization is extremely intense. Citizens increasingly distrust one another. Many people have become attracted to “strong” leaders who promise decisive action and victory over their opponents, at all costs. Some Christians have joined this trend enthusiastically, even if democracy itself is a casualty.
Yet I want to suggest that Christians should be among democracy’s strongest defenders.
Democracy is not perfect. It is often frustrating, slow, and messy. It requires compromise. It produces outcomes we do not always like. But democracy remains the best political system human beings have yet devised for governing free societies while limiting the dangers of concentrated power.
The Christian case for democracy does not begin with modern political theory. It begins with a realistic understanding of human nature.
Christian doctrine teaches that every person is created in the image of God and therefore possesses inherent dignity and worth. Christianity also teaches that every person is affected by sin. Human beings are capable of remarkable wisdom and extraordinary cruelty. We are capable of generosity and selfishness, justice and domination.
This combination of dignity and fallibility has profound political implications.
Because people possess dignity, they deserve a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Because people are sinful, no person or group can safely be entrusted with unlimited power.
Democracy reflects both truths. It honors the equal dignity of citizens while creating structures that distribute power, establish accountability, and constrain those who govern.
The alternative is usually some form of authoritarianism.
Authoritarian politics centralizes power in a leader or ruling group. It weakens institutions designed to provide accountability. It treats opponents as enemies rather than fellow citizens. It promises strength, certainty, and order. Many people find it attractive during periods of social anxiety and cultural change.
Christians are hardly immune to such temptations.
Indeed, there is a long history of Christians supporting authoritarian political arrangements. Many Christian communities have themselves been organized around highly centralized authority structures. When social changes seem threatening, some believers become willing to trade democratic freedoms for the promise of restored cultural influence.
The temptation is understandable. It is also dangerous.
History repeatedly demonstrates that concentrated political power eventually threatens both religious freedom and human dignity. The same governments that favor one religious community today may suppress it tomorrow.
Fortunately, Christian tradition contains powerful democratic resources of its own. Three traditions are especially important, in my view.
The first is the Baptist democratic tradition.
Many people do not realize how deeply Baptists contributed to democratic thought. Long before modern democracies were fully established, Baptists were arguing for religious liberty, freedom of conscience, limits on state power, and the separation of church and state.
These commitments arose from theological convictions.
Baptists believed that genuine faith could not be coerced. They believed that every person stands directly accountable before God. They believed that governments should not possess authority over conscience. They believed that religious minorities deserve protection — because they themselves often lived as minorities.
Baptists also practiced democracy long before many people trusted it.
A Baptist congregation is a constitutional community. Members gather voluntarily. They establish rules. They elect leaders. They make decisions collectively. They hold leaders accountable. They amend governing documents through agreed-upon procedures.
For more than four centuries, Baptist churches have served as schools of democratic citizenship. That is, Baptist churches that have remembered their founding genius.
The second resource is the Black Christian democratic tradition.
No group has fought harder and at greater cost for American democracy than Black Americans.
From slavery through segregation and beyond, Black citizens were repeatedly excluded from the promises of American democracy. Yet generation after generation continued demanding that the nation live up to its own purported values.
The Black church became, and remains, one of the primary institutions through which this democratic struggle was sustained.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offered perhaps the clearest example. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, he appealed to the stated founding principles of the nation while exposing the gap between those principles and American reality.
King understood that democracy is never finished. Democratic societies require constant renewal. Rights must be protected. Participation must be expanded. Equality must be defended.
The Black democratic tradition teaches that democracy is not merely a system of government. It is an ongoing moral project requiring courage, sacrifice, and persistence. It must be fought for, every day.
It reminds us that democracy is strongest when it includes everyone.
The third resource is covenantal democracy.
Modern political life often treats citizenship as little more than the protection of individual rights.
Rights matter enormously. But a healthy democracy requires more than rights. It requires a sense of mutual obligation.
The biblical concept of covenant offers a powerful way to think about political community. A covenant is not merely a contract among self-interested individuals. It is a solemn commitment to shared responsibilities and shared purposes. It is an exchange of sacred promises between people, and in scripture, with God.
Early democratic thinkers influenced by biblical traditions often understood political life in these terms. Citizens entered into covenant with one another. They pledged themselves to a common life together. They wrote constitutions that read like sacred covenants.
Today that language has largely disappeared from public discourse. We speak frequently about what society owes us and far less about what we owe one another. And too many of our leaders appear to have zero sense of covenant loyalty or fidelity.
Democracy cannot survive without civic virtues.
A democratic people must practice patience, self-restraint, honesty, responsibility, and concern for the common good. Citizens must be willing to lose elections without abandoning the constitutional order. They must accept opponents as fellow members of the political community. They must care about the health of institutions that will outlast any particular political victory.
In short, democracy requires character.
Christians should understand this well. Our faith has always emphasized the formation of character and virtue. Churches at their best help create precisely the kinds of citizens democratic societies need.
Where does all of this leave us?
Christians today face a choice.
One path embraces resentment, fear, and the pursuit of political dominance. It seeks salvation through domineering leaders and centralized power. It views democratic constraints as obstacles rather than safeguards.
The other path draws upon the deepest resources of the Christian tradition.
It remembers that God alone is sovereign. It recognizes that all human power requires limits. It honors the dignity of every person. It protects freedom of conscience. It seeks justice for those on the margins. It values democratic participation as a form of service to our neighbors.
This second path is not easy. Democracy never is.
Democracy requires us to live with disagreement. It requires patience with imperfection. It requires confidence that our fellow citizens possess equal dignity even when we strongly disagree with them.
Yet these are not merely democratic virtues. They are deeply Christian ones as well.
Democracy is not the kingdom of God. No political system can bring about God’s final purposes for creation.
But while we await that kingdom, democracy remains one of the most effective ways human beings have discovered to protect freedom, restrain power, and pursue justice together.
That is reason enough to defend it.
And Christians, of all people, should be among its defenders.
Note: This essay draws on themes in my 2023 book, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies (Eerdmans).
