The After Party
A review.
In my last post, I reviewed a “biblical citizenship” course offered by an organization called Patriot Academy. I wanted to take the time to understand what it was teaching both because I understand that it’s been influential in conservative Christian circles, but also to help contrast with a similar-sounding course that I’ve been meaning to check out: The After Party, produced by an organization called Redeeming Babel.
It’s made up of 6 sessions, each including several video segments that total 20-40 minutes per session. They describe it as follows:
The After Party is a free six-part video course designed to provide churches, small groups, and individuals with an on-the-ground, biblically based approach to navigating today’s challenging political environment.
It’s no secret that the church has been challenged by extreme polarization, entrenched tribal affiliations, and the broken relationships that often result. Our course, born of a deep friendship among Russell Moore, David French, and Curtis Chang, is both inspiring and practical and will help you reorient your heart and mind towards a Christ-centered political identity for 2024 and beyond.
Through interactive videos that encourage participants to inventory their own political identities, consider the “how” vs. the “what” of politics, and explore what the Bible has to say about it all, you’ll be equipped to navigate these challenging topics in your own life and within the community you lead.
The course is free (you can make an optional donation if you find it valuable), and only requires an email address to sign up. You access the sessions on their website, each of which features relatively short videos interspersed with interactive prompts for discussion, reflection and prayer. I found it well-executed and easy to use.
The Presenters
Cards on the table, I expected to appreciate this series more than the last one because I already respect the work of all three of the main presenters (French in particular):
Curtis Chang: Former senior pastor, consulting faculty member of Duke Divinity School and a senior fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary, founder of Redeeming Babel, host of the Good Faith Podcast.
David French: Former constitutional lawyer in religious liberty cases, Iraq war veteran, columnist at the New York Times (formerly at The Dispatch where he still contributes and National Review).
Russell Moore: Former president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, graduate (Ph.D. in systematic theology) of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Editor-in-chief of Christianity Today.
Politically, all are critical of the Republican party in the Trump era, yet French and Moore remain quite conservative. Chang is somewhat left leaning.
While formal qualifications aren’t everything, it’s hard to ignore the disparity between the bios of these presenters and those of the course in my previous post.
Review
Honestly, I found this series to be extremely valuable. I took it as an individual, but they also recommend experiencing it as a group which is probably even more beneficial. I’m not sure how I feel about it being presented in churches since it does still have a political focus. Nevertheless, it is very similar to a Bible study. Nearly every short video includes multiple scripture passages which are not merely cited to bolster a point but actually inform the main themes of the course.
The course doesn’t advocate for any one political party or policy position, and unlike the previously reviewed course, I think most viewers would have difficulty concluding from the videos how they vote. The one exception is French’s openness about being pro-life, but this is not included in the video in order to advocate for any policy on the issue but rather to introduce a moving story of how he and his wife befriended a hostile Twitter warrior.
There are too many Bible verses in the series to cite here, but the one that guides the whole series is Micah 6:8 (NIV, emphasis mine):
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The rest of the series unpacks, through personal testimonials, scripture and thoughtful insight, what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly.
An early focus is on how Jesus behaved in his cultural context, which was even more divided than ours. On one side were Jewish zealots who would commit acts of terrorism against the conquering Romans, and on the other were Jewish tax collectors working on the Romans’ behalf. Jesus called a member of each to be his disciples in a stark reflection of his higher, unifying purpose.
The theme of humility is applied to things like policymaking, where humility means recognizing that reality is complex and designing good policies is hard. Humility is understanding that I may be wrong about any issue, and definitely am wrong about some things but don't know which. As such, we need to be open to learning from others and engaging in good faith dialog with those who disagree. Certainty usually comes from outsourcing understanding to others who claim to have a simple answer.
The themes of justice and mercy are represented by the Civil Rights Movement (and features segments with Rev. Charlie Dates), as a modern example of what biblical political action looks like. The Christian difference is reflected in the mercy shown by nonviolent black demonstrators who did not retaliate when abused by police in the Jim Crow south, and whose power was manifested by their grace. (I’ll note that the best recent example I can think of also comes from the black church, in the Emanual AME Church’s response to the slaughter of their members by Dylan Roof.)
We are reminded that America is not the promised land, and the Constitution is not the Bible. There are battles we are called to fight, but they are spiritual battles, not against flesh and blood.
The series also spends quite a bit of time exploring four different personas that represent different postures toward politics:
The Combatant (hopeful but lacking humility)
They are sure of their rightness and believe they can make a difference.
The Exhausted (humble but lacking hope)
They are willing to hear other viewpoints but have little fight in them.
The Cynic (lacking hope and humility)
They think they know better and that efforts to effect change are futile.
The Disciple (hopeful and humble)
They are willing to admit they may be wrong, listen to others, and believe progress is possible.
It spends an entire session on each of the first three types and what can lead to that mindset, and how one can move toward the posture of the disciple.
The final section is about applying the values and themes of the series to how we engage in politics. This starts with learning how to be obedient in politics, by loving our enemies (Matthew 5:43), exhibiting the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and not having a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). It involves recognizing the example Jesus set in a far more hostile environment than ours, and the sacrificial love and forgiveness he showed on the cross in the face of extreme injustice (Luke 23:34).
They call us to be “post partisan” - not attaching oneself to a particular party or adopting that allegiance as an identity. Parties change what they stand for over time, so attaching yourself to them puts you on an unstable foundation. Being post partisan also requires us to acknowledge that many issues are extremely complex and debatable, and people of goodwill can come to different conclusions.
The series recommends applying two rules to yourself to put this into practice:
I will not lie, and I will oppose lying.
I will not be cruel, and I will oppose cruelty.
If we apply these rules even to our own side, we will start to see who we have true fellowship with.
This last point is so key and has really been impactful to my own political evolution. I still struggle with partisanship, and I definitely hold strong opinions about certain politicians and policies which I find to be immoral, dangerous or unwise. But it is liberating to adopt an independent mindset and realize that no one political party or platform has a monopoly on the best policies, virtually everything is complicated and requires empathy and compromise, and that parties change, and we need not change with them. True biblical citizenship involves understanding that, for Christians, obedience is found less in what we achieve in politics than in how we engage: with justice, mercy and humility.
Having experienced two courses aimed at helping Christians understand how we should participate in politics, I know which I find to be the more compelling, spiritually mature and biblical. If you’ve read my introductory post, it should come as no surprise that I highly recommend The After Party. There’s much more depth, scripture and insight in the full course (which is not that long), so please don’t use my brief overview as a substitute for experiencing it in its entirety.