Good morning!

Our April newsletter coincides with exciting news: The After Party book is out today! I co-wrote it with my dear friend Nancy French, and we’re both thrilled that it’s finally available for friends like you who are asking, “Isn’t there a better way for Christians to engage in politics?”

Today, I want to tell you about one of my favorite parts of the book. It comes in the form of an informal quiz which provides a special way to understand your political identity. The exercise relies on a framework that David French, Russell Moore, and I developed as part of our free video course for small groups. Taking the quiz only requires a few minutes, and in fact, we’ve made it available for you at the end of this short essay. But, like any good student (!!), please don’t skip ahead — I’d love to share some thoughts that will help you get the most out of this exercise.

I love this quiz. It helps those who take it make a key move toward better Christian politics: the move from our current obsession with the “what” of politics to a Jesus-centered “how” of politics. The “what” of politics asks, “What policy, party, or candidate is most Christian?” The “how” of politics asks, “How do I relate to others — including those I might disagree with — so that I better reflect Jesus?”

Let me be clear: Christians should care about the “what” of politics. But in most cases, you cannot draw a clear and uncontested line from Jesus to a particular set of “whats.” Consider the Sermon on the Mount. You can try to connect Jesus’ words to a particular party’s policies on immigration, gun control, or aid to Ukraine; but your own chosen line is inevitably going to be fuzzy and contested. Other Christians — including perhaps some of your friends and family members — might draw them differently.

But all of us can and should draw a straight line from Jesus’ explicit teaching in the Sermon on the Mount to how you should relate to others around politics. That is, Jesus’ words on these themes are unambiguous. He explicitly commands his disciples to:

• Show mercy (Matthew 5:7)
• Make peace (5:9)
• Refrain from angrily mocking your opponent (5:21–22)
• Prioritize reconciling over winning disputes (5:23–25)

Stop for a moment and ask yourself, Does my experience of Christian political behavior today reflect these practices? Too many Christians are mercilessly combative, mocking opponents, and prioritizing winning disputes over reconciliation. And what’s the widespread justification for violating Jesus’ commands on the “how”? Answer: such violations are necessary to win on the “what.”

We have overly constructed our political identity on the “what,” instead of the “how.” We’re emphasizing the part of politics that has the fuzziest and most contested connections to Jesus, all at the expense of the part that has the clearest lines tying us to Jesus. We’ve got our priorities backward.

Instead, imagine if all Christians committed themselves to adopting just one of these practices — say, the Matthew 5:21–22 practice of refraining from angrily mocking your opponent — while still promoting their preferred policies. Imagine if all progressive Christians advocating for police reform refrained from smearing all police officers as fascists and racists. Imagine if all conservative Christians advocating for immigration reform refrained from stereotyping immigrants as rapists and drug dealers. The resulting transformation of our political culture would be profound.

So, back to the quiz that I love. Books and curriculum that emphasize the “what” of politics will naturally begin with a quiz that asks a bunch of questions focused on policy and ideology. Quiz takers are invariably then sorted out on a “what” spectrum ranging from conservative to progressive, right to left, Republican to Democrat. Such an exercise immediately sets us in opposition to each other.

Our quiz is a “how” quiz. Specifically, we ask you to evaluate yourself on two “how” qualities: hope and humility. Our book goes deep into these two topics and how Jesus’ teaching prioritized these two virtues in his teaching on political behavior. Because here’s the thing: Hope and Humility — not Republican or Democrat — define the political identity of a Jesus disciple.

The beauty of a quiz that sorts people by hope and humility is that it creates much more interesting identity categories than the simplistic binary of political “whats” allow. And these new identity categories allow Republicans and Democrats to find common ground that otherwise might be impossible.

For instance, consider someone who scores low in hope but high in humility. We categorize this person as “Exhausted.” They are humble in that they don’t claim to have all the definitive answers in politics. But they feel that everything is hopeless. There are plenty of Republicans and Democrats who will take our quiz and together fall into this common identity category. Wouldn’t you be interested in learning about how an Exhausted person can help their Exhausted neighbors move toward better Christian politics — regardless of partisan identity?

If that vision interests you — and if you’re interested in the other identity categories in our Jesus-centered framework — then please check out The After Party book. You can read it to discern if The After Party course is a good fit for your church — or read it after working through the course to go deeper on a better approach to politics. We believe the book will help you discover your own path towards the hope and humility Jesus intends for you.

To help you get started, here’s our Hope and Humility quiz:

Glad to be with you in this work,

Curtis