Politics for People Who Hate Politics: New Book Offers Tips on How to Engage in a Christ-like Manner

With the 2024 presidential election just months away, new polling shows partisan divides growing deeper. In the wake of this division, one author offers a way to engage in this political brokenness in a manner worthy of Christ to hopefully change it for the better. 

Working in politics for more than 20 years, Denise Gitsham knows many Christians approach it much like the world does, as a blood sport.  In her book, Politics for People Who Hate Politics: How to Engage Without Losing Your Friends or Selling Your Soul, 

She offers tangible tips for how to lovingly engage without losing friends in the process.

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"I really think the onus of unity starts within the body of Christ because we are the ones that are called to unite," Gitsham told CBN News. 

She believes the Bible makes it clear this calling is non-negotiable. 

"There's over 179 verses in scripture that speak to the importance of unity in the body of Christ and how we treat each other," explained Gitsham. "That's ground zero for what the world is watching and what our witness really is."

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Complete with endorsements from politicians on both sides, she believes this book can help Christians flip the script on political discord by loving those who disagree with us. 

"When you're in politics you can feel like that person on the other side of an issue is your enemy in the moment, even if they have more in common with you because of your shared identity in Christ," Gitsham said. 

The author feels Christians should play a role in shaping our government, but only by seeking the Lord while doing so. 

"I think it's really important that when we engage in politics, we ask the Lord, how do you want me to show up? What is your main mission here?" Gitsham said. "And Lord, protect my heart from falling into the political spirit, which I just call politics as usual. It's so easy to adopt the world's way of doing things."

In her role as a political commentator, she discourages disengaging from political conversations while providing tangible advice on how to foster unity.

"I don't think that anyone benefits from just saying I'm not going to be involved in this conversation, because when we can't speak the truth, the truth on the perspective that God has given us, we feel like we can't really be in a relationship because that other person is never going to know what you really stand for," Gitsham explained. "And when you aren't able to speak your truth, you feel like you're compromising yourself."

In her book, she shares firsthand lessons gleaned from her own political experience.

"Having been a candidate for Congress, I really felt like so often I'd walk into a church and I would, I could sense that there was something unholy about how they were engaging with me as a politician," Gitsham recalled.

And she warns against Christians being overcome by a political spirit. 

"What it does is it ends up manifesting in a way that causes us to not love other people," she explained. "It turns us into distrustful people. It turns us into people who see things through an earthly lens instead of from a heavenly perspective."

Gitsham reminds believers first and foremost to be ambassadors of Christ.

"Everywhere we go, we're bringing kingdom principles and kingdom values into the conversation," she said. "We're bringing Kingdom hope, and we're bringing a perspective that's not earthly, but heavenly."

Gitsham believes that given their position as America's single largest voting bloc, Christians could completely transform politics for the better by first committing to love each other and unite around the principles of God.