Handling a Hostile Culture - Tim Keller's Thoughts

The following extended quotation is from a 2021 interview that World Magazine did with Tim Keller.  I find it helpful and formative almost five years later.

"I have heard many fellow Christians accuse you of being a liberal politically."

As the term has been used by the great majority of people in the last several decades, I am not politically liberal. I am not a supporter of a highly centralized, government-controlled economy or of taxes at the level of European socialist countries. I am pro-life. I am, of course, a major supporter of religious liberty, a term that the left now puts in scare quotes and a concept it opposes. Political liberals do not consider me politically liberal.

So why have some people called me a political liberal?

The first reason is that, in a highly politically polarized environment, anyone who is not fully, loudly, and explicitly supporting "your tribe" is now seen as supporting the other side. During the last election I simply said that as a minister, I could not bind Christians’ consciences (see Westminster Confession Ch. 20) and tell them how to vote. That angered many conservative people who believed that any effort to be “apolitical” was really to be on the liberal side

The second reason is because I often preach what the Bible teaches about how Christians should work for and support the poor and needy. Even though I simply expound the Scripture and say nothing about government or taxation, many people believe any such emphasis will lead to higher taxes and bigger government and therefore is “liberal.” This is not true, of course. To say Christians must be deeply concerned for the needs of the poor is simply presenting a Biblical truth and is not speaking to political policy.

Third, many believe that if I am not denunciatory and unfriendly to liberals I must myself be a liberal which is not true. Jesus called us to publicly “greet” and wish peace to not just our own fellow believers but to all (Mt 5:43-48).  Recently on Twitter I congratulated an atheist (Greg Epstein) on being selected as head chaplain at Harvard. He is a man whose views I have publicly debated, and I am on record as having opposed his atheistic beliefs. Yet he has also been friendly to me, and is a man whom insiders know to be more fair-minded and open to allowing all chaplains—including evangelical ones—to do their ministries than some Harvard head chaplains have been in the past. Nevertheless, many on social media expressed their conviction that if you show friendliness to atheists and liberals you must be at the very least a closet liberal yourself. That is not true.

This is an excerpt from a long, wide-ranging and interesting two-part interview.  The whole thing is worth your time and consideration.  CLICK HERE to read it.