Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative by Carl Trueman

When I start a book at 10:15 pm and stay up until 11:55 pm to finish it, it’s not an ordinary book.  And that is certainly true of Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative by Carl Trueman.  Trueman is a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and he blogs over at Reformation 21.  As a professor of theology and church history at a religiously conservative seminary (the same seminary whose president published a book on George Washington and promoted it recently on the Glenn Beck show), you wouldn’t necessarily expect Trueman to write such a paradoxically entitled book.  But let me assure you, the seemingly contradictory title is only where the fun begins.

What makes this book particularly interesting is that Trueman writes  from a non-American background.  He’s British and moved to America only 9 years ago.  So he brings a decidedly outsider’s perspective on politics, and the connection between religion and politics.  That, and his skills as a writer are seen in numerous rhetorical flourishes throughout the book.  But setting aside his brilliance (yes, I found it that enjoyable) with a pen for a moment, let me mention the foreword to the book.  Yes, I know, typically the foreword is usually that little blurb that doesn’t really matter and is often quite boring.  Not so in this book.  The foreword may be one of the most entertaining, hilarious, and generally provocative beginnings to a book I’ve ever seen.  And the reason is simple: unlike most forewords, the author of this one (the aforementioned president of Trueman’s seminary) almost completely disagrees with Trueman’s political ideas.  So his foreword is a celebration of his friendship with such a careful, witty, and generally crazed writer such as Trueman.  And it leads me to say one very important point thing about this book: Don’t read it because you think you will agree with it (either before or after reading it).  Read it to get an insightful point of view that will stimulate you to think carefully about the issues raised in it.

What is the Point?

Having said all that, it’s time to actually discuss why this book exists in the first place.  It’s not a tract in favor of “liberal” politics.  It’s not simply a book that swings at some disturbing features of the American Christian Right.  In fact, there’s something here to make everybody angry (and thus enough here that everyone should read it).  In reality, the book doesn’t exactly make a case for much in the way of political views.  Rather, Trueman summarizes his basic thesis like this:

Politics in democracy is a whole lot more complicated than either political parties or your pastor tell you it is; treat it as such–learn about the issues and think for yourself. (xxvi)

In other words, he’s saying that no one political party can claim that they have the “Christian” perspective on all political issues.  In order to support this thesis, Trueman lambastes FoxNews, the secular left (i.e., those that say they care about the oppressed and the downtrodden but somehow don’t seem to care about the unborn), and all those who accept all that Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly have to say as actual argumentation.  He looks at the way American politics is currently done (including the 2 minute answer followed by 1 minute response debates in presidential elections) and concludes that it’s all about sound bites and appearance.  And from my perspective, most of his criticism is spot on.  That doesn’t mean I agree with his views on health care and welfare.  But he doesn’t really make a case for them.  His point is to plead, beg, cajole, and convince American Christians to think carefully about issues in the civic realm.  In other words, he’s saying that Christians should not use these kinds of phrases, “If we have nationalized health care, we will basically be in totalitarian communist regimes ruled by bullet and bomb,” and “If we don’t let gay people get married, we’re no better than Hitler in his oppression of the Jews.”  His is a plea for sanity and careful argumentation (i.e., arguments that actually use facts and logic).

One of the most compelling parts of the book for me personally is his frank discussion of capitalism and its (un)intended effects: consumerism.  While he accepts that capitalism is basically the best economic idea at this point in history, he argues that we ought to be very careful about how consumerism may pulverize the very “conservative” values that are supposedly.  I’ll end with a couple of quotes and a plea to read the book:

Now, let me go on record and say that I am happy enough not to be walking around, looking like an extra for a low-budget movie about Elton John’s early career; I enjoy having nice, new things and not being stared at for all the wrong reasons as I walk down the street.  My point is rather this: be aware that not all the effects of capitalism are unconditional goods, consistent with the gospel and with the Christian mind-set; we need to be as self-aware of the impact of this way of life as that of any other. (73)

Christians are to be good citizens, to take their civic responsibilities seriously, and to respect the civil magistrates appointed over us.  We also need to acknowledge that the world is a lot more complicated than the pundits of Fox News (or MSNBC) tell us.  We must never engage in the kind of inappropriate behavior of those who carry around pictures of our appointed leaders as criminals, or who scream mindless abuse at those with whom they disagree.  Christian politics, so often associated now with loudmouthed aggression, needs rather to be an example of thoughtful, informed engagement with the issues and appropriate involvement with the democratic process.  And that requires a culture change.  We need to read and watch more widely, be as critical of our own favored pundits and narratives as we are of those cherished by our opponents, and seek to be good stewards of the world and of the opportunities therein that God has given us. (109)

At 110 pages, this is not a difficult (or expensive) book to read.  However, it will challenge everyone (from every political perspective) to think carefully about the issues involved in public discourse in our present age.  For me, it is an incredibly insightful and brilliant work that should spawn thoughtful conversations among Christians everywhere, and at the end of the day, I may or may not disagree with Trueman about most political issues.  But that isn’t the point.  The point is that reading it, and thinking through it as he suggests, can do nothing but help promote better dialogue instead of the chest-puffing, fear-mongering, logic-lacking conversations that often exist when people talk about politics.