New Mexico is one of only seven majority-minority states and the only state where a slight majority (51 percent) identify as Hispanic or Latino. Its makeup isn’t only due to recent immigration trends. New Mexico was once part of Mexico, and before that, its story was one of Spanish settlement alongside indigenous peoples.
Colin Woodard’s American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America calls the region of New Mexico and much of its surrounding area “El Norte”—the oldest European subculture in the United States, founded by Catholic Spanish settlers in the 1500s. The Spanish-speaking population in New Mexico today is made up of both recent Mexican migrants and the descendants of Spanish colonists. These residents are often associated culturally with Norteños (Northerners) in Mexico.
The borders have shifted many times. For centuries, the New Mexico area was part of New Spain’s viceroyalty. There was a time when the northeastern edge belonged to France. The Republic of Texas once claimed portions of the state. In 1821, most of present-day New Mexico became an autonomous region of the Mexican empire. Then in 1848, it was annexed by the United States as part of the larger New Mexico territory. It became the 47th state in 1912. To put it in context, the period during which New Mexico was governed by Spain or Mexico is more than double the length of time it has been a state!
The descendants of Spanish settlers remain in New Mexico. Over the centuries, the borders have shifted over their heads, putting them under the rule of New Spain, or France, or Mexico, or Texas, or the United States. While the boundary markers changed, the settlers continued with their unique cultural attributes, their Spanish dialect, their old buildings and landmarks, their traditions and artifacts.
There’s a lesson here for the church in unsettled times. Boundaries may shift, but we remain settled because of enduring truths.
Remain Settled in an Unsteady World
In politics these days, it’s common for Christians to feel disoriented by the quickly changing landscape. Positions considered left-leaning and liberal in the ’90s are now considered right-wing or centrist. Isolationist tendencies once associated with the left are now markers of a resurgent right. Principles once celebrated by conservatives (free trade, minimal government interference in business, etc.) are now decried by populists (who push for tariffs, unions, economic regulation, and more governmental oversight). Ever-changing norms make social media swarms more common, creating an atmosphere fraught with peril.
Pastors and church leaders feel the boundaries moving. Take a sermon from 15 years ago and preach it again word for word—on the subject of racial reconciliation, or advocacy for the unborn, or the indispensable elements of character for politicians seeking public office, or the Christian requirement to love our neighbors, or the meaning of marriage—and that sermon today, depending on the topic, could get labeled woke, or right-wing, or liberal, or Christian Nationalist, or progressive, or theocratic.
What happened? The borders shifted. What was once a cherished principle of being “conservative” may now be considered “liberal,” and what was once considered a “liberal” position may now be considered “pragmatic” and “necessary” for the right’s political ends. The feverish excitement of an election year, where signals are more important than substance and vibes matter more than principles, only adds to the anxiety and disorientation.
Stand
What do we do in a world where the borders are whizzing back and forth overhead?
First, we stand. We stand firm on biblical principles grounded in general revelation (observable in creation, bolstered by natural law) and special revelation (God’s inerrant Word). Don’t compromise your convictions. Don’t defy your conscience. Go back to the basics of the created order—the enduring narrative of God’s good world, marred by human sin and fallenness, now groaning for redemption. And then go back to the basics of Christian truth—the Nicene faith that has stood the test of time.
There’s no need to dig in. Just stand. Stay settled. Keep the main thing the main thing. Be a gospel person willing to hear and heed the whole counsel of God, no matter what borders change, no matter what new boundary markers appear, no matter what shibboleths those in power say you must utter if you’re to be accepted or to maintain influence. When it comes to political parties, whether we’re welcomed in or thrown out, we’re never to be of.
Outstretched Arm
Second, we maintain an outstretched arm toward brothers and sisters who may disagree on the best way forward. Don’t allow others to bind your conscience or burden you with the only correct way to think through choices that require wisdom and prudence. As long as you stand firmly on what God has revealed in creation and in redemption, feel free to debate everything else.
While the borders and boundaries whiz back and forth, set yourself free from the confining frame of 21st-century American politics. Those categories aren’t real. They’ll change in 10 years’ time, or maybe sooner. The borders will shift again. The best response when the boundaries are moving is to stay settled. Better to be principled people in search of a party than party people in search of principles.
Kingdom People First
Whatever happens, don’t forget we’re kingdom people first, no matter what passport we carry.
Keep the witness of the church throughout history ever on your mind. The saints of old matter more than the rising and falling stars in our national theater.
Keep your eyes on Jesus’s beautiful multicolored Bride. Believers in other parts of the world, even those who don’t always share your political sensibilities, are bound to you by Jesus’s blood more closely than a political ally who shares your strategy but not your Savior.
Pastors, don’t compromise your convictions for short-term political expediency. Don’t trade the mantle of a prophet for the pittance of a pundit. Don’t let the intensity of social media wars distract you from the flesh-and-blood people you’re called to lead. When tempted to let national concerns dwarf your passion for the Great Commission, seek first the kingdom and God’s righteousness.
Settled
The borders may be moving, but our calling doesn’t change.
When the dust settles, may it be said of us that we cultivated a church culture able to withstand the fallout from political rivalries. A culture marked by convictional civility in a world of reviling. A culture marked by the Beatitudes, with people who display the fruit of the Spirit, who refuse to fight worldliness with worldliness, who become an oasis of grace in a parched land. A people who belong to the kingdom and who look more and more like their King.
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