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Page 2 Continued And Forrester was not the only PTS alum with previous government service
who was running for national office in New Jersey this past fall. Buster Soaries (Class of 1989), 51, was the Republican nominee for the U.S. House
of Representatives in the district that includes Princeton Seminary. He is
senior pastor of the
First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset,
New Jersey. Soaries also served from January 1999 to January 2002 as New
Jersey’s secretary of state. (Forrester lost his senate bid by 10
percentage points; Soaries lost by 23.)
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Buster Soaries |
So how does a commitment to Jesus Christ come into play for Christians in
politics? “If it is a Christian’s calling, as I believe it is, to be listening to
what those on the underside of a political system are saying,” says Mark
Taylor, PTS professor of theology and culture who has been involved with
many grassroots political movements, “and if one works to critically
engage that, then it is going to be very difficult to translate those
concerns into political practice in the present system—because the present
system is so beholden to the powerful.”
“Yes, it’s difficult, with the money and power involved,” said Forrester
in the midst of his high-level campaign, to which it is reported he
contributed millions of his own dollars earned from a pharmaceutical
drug-related business. “No question about it. So one of the marvelous
things about Christian spirituality is that it always presses us,
precisely when we feel like we’re being faithful, to acknowledge there’s
always more to it. One of the reasons I’m thankful for my theological
education is that it gives me tools to help guard against feelings of
self-sufficiency or self-satisfaction.” Both Soaries and Forrester advocated taking this type of self-reflective
posture, while also sticking to firm principles. “I am open to compromise around process,” said Soaries. “If someone says
to me, ‘Listen we are going to fix the road first, and then we will fix
the park second,’ I am willing to say, ‘Well, if fixing the road first
will guarantee me that you will fix the park, then I will support your
fixing the road first to buy support for fixing the park that otherwise
wouldn’t get fixed.’” “But,” he said, “if compromise challenges my core beliefs, then I would
rather lose than compromise.”
 “You almost can’t avoid a utilitarian sort of decision-making, at least at
certain moments, even if that is not your way of making decisions across
the board,” says Nancy Duff, PTS associate professor of theological
ethics. “But where you draw the line becomes so significant. How much
compromise? And I think the temptation to keep pushing the line back is so
enormous. I don’t think this is all that different for politicians than
for others of us working in different arenas. Except that for politicians,
their vocation, their daily job—who they are—puts them in a world where
that might be required of them more often.”
Forrester acknowledged the difficulty of ethical decision-making in the
process, but said the spiritual demands go beyond that. When asked what,
based on his first-hand experience, he would like to share with seminary
students and professors about the political process, he said, “Politics is
the most sophisticated predatory environment we have. It’s important to
prepare people, if they’re going to be involved in politics, to better
understand the nature of this environment.” Because of the demands, Forrester said prayer has become his “most
important” spiritual support. “And not just my own prayer,” he said. “I
have been affected immensely by the awareness of the prayers of
others—more than at any other time in my life. I’m aware that I’m not
alone in this enterprise. The support of those who have shared this
kindness has been important for me.” “I would say it’s important for politicians to have an active spiritual
life of prayer and Scripture reading every day,” says George Hunsinger,
PTS professor of systematic theology, “as well as to connect with
thoughtful voices like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and George Kennan [a historian
and former top U.S. diplomat]. It would give them an ethos, a mind-set,
that would help with the difficult questions.” Martin Luther King Jr. has been one of those thoughtful voices with whom
Soaries stays connected, particularly King’s lessons in the Civil Rights
movement. “Even in the most extreme adversarial situations, I was raised
in a tradition that really taught us to love our enemies,” Soaries said.
“Now that might not work well in politics at all. But I would rather lose
and remain committed to my own personal ethic than to employ tactics that
turn me into someone I am not. I am a minister first. Politics for me has
got to remain an extension of my ministry and not as a separate vocation
that could in fact nullify my ministry.” Though they both graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary, neither
Soaries nor Forrester listed God as one of their endorsers! Avoiding this
impression is, in fact, a matter both take very seriously.
Continued on page 3
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