Bottom line: As Christians we cannot escape the duty of political involvement.

This Sunday Jesus tells us, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." I can do no better than recommend Archbishop Charles Chaputīs excellent book Render Unto Caesar subtitled "Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life." Archbishop Chaput explains that he wrote the book because a friend asked him to do it. His friend is a young attorney who ran for the Colorado General Assembly on the Democratic ticket. The book brilliantly explains why - and how - Christians should actively involve themselves in our countryīs political life.

I have the advantage of reading this book while in Peru. It helps to have a little distance from our numbing twenty-four hour news cycle and the nastiness that has become such a part of political campaigns. Like many people, I have felt the temptation to join the near majority of Americans who simply opt out.* As Archbishop Chaput makes clear, that will not do.

In the opening chapters, Archbishop Chaput explains why political involvement is a Christian duty. He answers those who try to intimidate us by invoking a false understanding of the "separation of church and state." Although Christian faith is always personal, it is never private. That is, our faith will inevitably have implications for our public actions.

What then is the basis for Christian involvement in politics? The answer is simple: Jesus gave us the command to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Archbishop Chaput develops at some length, that dual command is the reason for any involvement in politics. More on that next Sunday when we hear Jesusī reply to the scholar who asked him, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

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