Not infrequently, you will hear politicians chastise members of the opposing party for being ideologically motivated. They are implying that ideology is not a good starting point for creating laws or policy. Whatever the other party intends, it will be bad because it arises out of a worldview or ideology rather than political reality. Politicians are afraid of ideology because they want voters to respond emotionally to their rhetoric rather than rationally to the tenets of an ideology. They don’t want voters to be influenced by any system of thought that transcends the political debate and heat of the moment.

Every man is driven by an ideology, even if he doesn’t fully understand it and can’t articulate it. Politicians, regardless of party, are perhaps more driven by ideology than even the man in the street. One of the first things a politician does is to declare his party—his ideology. Liberals propose liberal solutions because their ideology is liberal. Conservatives propose conservative solutions because their ideology is conservative. Thus, when any politician accuses an opponent of being an ideologue, he can’t seriously mean that the problem is ideology without destroying his own position. His problem with his opponent is not that he has an ideology, but that he has a different ideology.

Let us suppose for a moment that the mere presence of ideology is the problem, and so it must be thrown out—by both sides. Liberals have to drop their liberalsim, and conservatives have to drop their conservativism. How do we move forward? Can anyone now propose a good idea? How would we know it was good? What standard would we use? That fact is that no one could propose a “good” idea because one can only judge what is good in terms of an ideology.
The fact that many ideologies exist might suggest that one has to step outside of the arena to judge them. The problem is that you can’t. Even to judge among ideologies, you have to have one by which you will judge.

The Christian is an ideologue. From the Bible, he has, or at least should have, developed a worldview—the more comprehensive, the better. If he is consistent, he will judge all men, ideas, laws, positions, and policies in terms of this biblical worldview or ideology. As Christians, we need to acknowledge—indeed we must insist—that this is the proper way to proceed.

So be a proud ideologue! At the very least it will inoculate you against one favorite trick of politicians. At best, it will mark you as a mature, consistent Christian.