Justin Giboney

I listened to (and watched) an interview on The Trinity Forum with Justin Giboney, who started The & (And) Campaign and wrote the book Compassion (&) Conviction. I had never heard of him, but wow! What a lot of wise things he said. I will try to remember to come back and link to the interview. Here is a link to a different interview that was good, too, and another. He and his co-author Michael Wear have a podcast, "The Church Politics Podcast." Here are a few things that struck me in the interview. They're not word for word quotes, but things I remember.

• After being in politics a while, I realized that Christian people assumed that if you want to be in politics you are going to have to surrender some of your convictions. That should not be.
• Our faith should impact our political outlook.
• It gives us purpose and mission, connected to everything we do.
• The love & truth of the gospel - what does it have to do with our interactions.
• Christians speak the truth in love.
• We can't be self-centered, we must also be interested in others as much if not more than others.
• Makes us more willing to go against our own interests, to do what is right.
• Our faith demands self-sacrifice, which is different than many others'.
• Walk into what seems a hopeless situation and have hope, to look at others who have hurt you and have love.
• Let go of our desire to get even, to be right, lay it down and yet speak the truth in love.
• We are missing moral imagination -- to see past this moment. Faith, seeing through the eyes of God allows you to see past it.
• Otherworldly, not always rational to give someone the benefit of the doubt, not to seek vengeance.
• We are witnesses, showing the love of God, not winning. Witness over winning.
• Everything is a response, "what-about-ism." That can't be the way of Christians. We have our own set of standards.
• Defend human dignity and promote human flourishing. Stay focussed.
• The government is ordained by God. It is for order and justice.
• The political parties are a tool, not your identity. They are a way to get things done. If someone criticizes your party it's not as if they were saying something about your mother.
• It's good to distance your self from your party or side. List 6 critiques of your own side. If you can't do that you might be getting too entwined in it.
• Whether you're Christian or not, the question is: Is your neighbor worth it? Your neighbor is worth it because you are worth it. If you don't protect your neighbor you're not protecting yourself.
• Justice starts with the Imago Dei, that each person is the image of God.

From a partial transcript of an interview:

MARVIN OLASKY: Okay, so let’s talk about the AND Campaign a little bit. What goes on both sides of the ampersand?

JUSTIN GIBONEY: Yeah. So I would say love and truth. Compassion and conviction. Uh, social justice and moral order. Justice and righteousness. One of the things that we found is when Christians get into politics, they feel like they have to go all the way to the left or all the way to the right. And we say, well, if you go all the way to the left, you understand there’s some convictions that you’re not going to be able to take with you, whether it be sanctity of life or the historic Christian sexual ethic. You can’t take those all the way to the left. And if you go to the right, you know, we would say that you, you’re not going to be able to take your compassion to the right with you. And so what we wanted to say is say, b b but instead of that being an or, right? Because our society separates love and truth, it separates compassion and conviction, for whatever reason. The gospel doesn’t, but our society does. We want Christians to see politics differently and say, no, no, no. When I go into politics, I’m about love and truth, compassion and conviction. I’m not gonna make that false choice. Because that’s really what it is, it’s a false dichotomy. And too often we make that because our ideological tribe or our party forces us into that, uh false choice.