In a conversation with a young friend, I was told that politics is the only way to get anything done. This is not true.

Politics — that is, the use of civil power — is a mean to gain the upper hand in a Hobbesian struggle. It is war, fought by other means.

It is for that reason that politics is a questionable activity for Christians. The victories achieved are often brief and, depending on the opposition, only maintained by the continued use of force.

It is profoundly the case that civil or military force are not the tools of the Kingdom of God. It is among the many reasons that the Kingdom of God is not, and never can be, a human project. …

Fr. Stephen Freeman, The Peaceable Kingdom in a World at War