My Fourth of July holiday reading includes Clarke Forsythe’s Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square. Forthsythe is writing to and for politically involved Christians who find themselves “frustrated with politics” in the wake of the 2008 elections and the present status of the debate on social issues (evangelicals appear to be losing).

Forsythe includes an extensive quote from Graham Walker, an Augustine scholar, on the constraints of politics in which Walker concludes “…politics is a provisional palliative for the fallen condition.”

Forsythe notes that “…politics cannot be the means for ultimate human fulfillment,” and yet most of us who consider ourselves evangelical conservatives have operated as if it is. Politics and the political system is – at best – a restraint on vice. In no sense can it be said of politics  that it alone can produce ultimate good (ultimate good being defined by natural law and not by individual preference).

Much of the frustration evangelicals are experiencing in the post-evangelical political climate can be ascribed to unrealistic expectations from the political process.

Forsythe:

Prudence recognizes that what can be accomplished through politics is limited by the fallen world. Those limits help us to evaluate and understand the obstacles around us and temper our expectations of what can be effectively accomplished – through politics – even with the best of efforts.

Later he notes:

Part of political prudence is recognizing that politics is limited, that politics is not the most important thing in life, that politics should not take the place of theology…Ultimate questions are properly left to theology and philosophy, because they are beyond the competence of politics.

Forsythe’s conclusions in this regard infer that much of the disenchantment among evangelicals with the political process can be ascribed to our “all-or-nothing” approach to the social issues predominating our political debates (i.e., a ban on all abortions) rather than exercising a willingness compromise incrementally in the pursuit of the ultimate good.

One of the main temptations of the religiously minded, politically involved citizens is letting their zeal race ahead of realism, obstacles, available resources and other contraints. Prudence requires an accurate view of reality and of human nature, both its potential and its limits.

Count me among those disillusioned evangelicals whose hopes for a better future have been enlivened by this reminder that ultimate good can not be achieved through political means, but that politics is merely a restraint on ultimate evil. We should work within the political system not for a carte blanche acceptance of our moral principles, but rather incrementally toward the achieving of goals which are best suited to the common good.