You know something is off. Your convictions feel borrowed. Your outrage feels manufactured. CHIPS is a framework for Christians who want to think for themselves — grounded in Christ, not a party.
The Problem
With their gut. With their team. Reacting before thinking. Sharing before praying. The church mirrors the culture wars instead of interrupting them — and most Christians don't have a tool to do it differently.
When party becomes identity, political positions stop being evaluated — they're just defended.
Fear and anger are powerful motivators. They're also the enemy of careful, faithful thinking.
When the cross and the flag become the same symbol, the gospel loses its power to speak beyond borders.
Strong political opinions held without ever examining them through the lens of Scripture.
The Guide
Built on years of research in political philosophy, classical virtue ethics, and Christian theology — CHIPS gives you a repeatable framework for any political moment you face.
It draws on thinkers who actually understood what it means to form citizens: Hegel on freedom and institutions, Tocqueville on civic life and democratic character, Aristotle on virtue and practical wisdom — all anchored in Christ.
Grounded in Hegel, Tocqueville, Aristotle, Plato, Dostoevsky, and Justin Martyr
Every framework decision is tested against the Scriptures and refined in prayer
Not just theory — a step-by-step process for real situations you face
CHIPS takes no partisan positions — it holds every tribe to the same standard
The Plan
Understand the five components of CHIPS and why each one matters for faithful political thinking.
Bring a real political situation. Walk through Christ → Heart → In → Political → Situations step by step.
Act from conviction rather than reaction. Submit your analysis. Connect with a community doing the same work.
The Framework
CHIPS walks you from first reaction to faithful response.
Backed by Real Work
The Stakes
The goal is not to make you more politically correct. It's to make you more faithfully present — in the world as it actually is, not the world your tribe has sold you.— The CHIPS Project
Ready?
Think of a political issue you've been struggling with — one where you're not sure what you actually think, or one where you've been reacting more than reasoning. CHIPS will walk you through it.
Free. No account required. Takes about 15 minutes.
Five questions that take you from reaction to response — grounded in Christ at every step.
"What has Christ actually said about this?"
This is the first and non-negotiable question. Not "what does my party say?" Not "what does my pastor say?" Not "what feels right to me?" — but what does Jesus, as the living Word of God, actually say about this situation?
This is harder than it sounds. Most political instincts come pre-loaded with cultural assumptions that have nothing to do with Christ. The first step is to honestly ask whether you've actually consulted him — not just used him to bless a conclusion you'd already reached.
The standard here is not a political platform. It is a person. And that person's teaching on justice, mercy, the poor, the foreigner, power, and human dignity is specific enough to challenge every political tribe.
"What is actually driving me right now?"
Before you say anything, post anything, or vote for anything — you need to examine what is actually in your heart. Not what you tell yourself is there, but what is actually there.
Fear is one of the most powerful political motivators in history. So is anger. So is the need to belong to a group. None of these are automatically wrong — but when they're driving your convictions, you're no longer thinking faithfully. You're reacting humanly.
The H step asks: Am I motivated by genuine love for my neighbor? By concern for justice? Or am I primarily motivated by tribal loyalty, fear of the other, or the anger that my preferred media outlet has carefully cultivated in me?
"Can you read, understand, and operate within reality — or are you just reacting to it?"
"In" is your developed capacity to move intelligently inside real life. It is not a single action — it is an ongoing skill set that is always active. You are either operating with it or you're not.
It includes the ability to perceive what is actually happening in a room — the tone, the power dynamics, the unstated tensions. It includes the judgment to know what matters and what doesn't. The communication to say the right thing the right way. The awareness to see second-order effects before they arrive.
"In" is built over time through training and experience until it becomes instinctive. Christians who are called to be salt and light in the world need more than good intentions — they need the developed competence to actually move in it.
"Do you understand how power actually works here — the institutions, the incentives, the people with stakes?"
The Political step asks you to understand the system you are trying to engage before you engage it. What institutions are involved? Who actually holds power here? What incentives are at play, and for whom? Good intentions run into broken systems all the time. This step is about knowing enough to engage wisely, not naively.
It also asks you to trace how ideas scale into structures — how personal conviction becomes collective action, how associations shape policy, how power is built and how it is checked. This is where your faith stops being private and starts having public weight.
This is the step that connects the formed individual to the world they are called to shape.
"What will you actually do right now — and are you prepared to own the consequences?"
A Situation is a specific moment that demands a choice and produces consequences. Unlike "In" — which is ongoing and trainable — a Situation is discrete. Irreversible. Once you act, it is done. And it reveals who you actually are in a way that no amount of preparation can substitute for.
Do you speak up or stay silent? Do you confront the error or avoid the conflict? Do you tell the truth when it costs you something, or protect yourself? These are not abstract questions. They are the specific decisions that define character.
Situations is where CHIPS closes the loop. Christ establishes the standard. Heart aligns your motives. In equips you to navigate reality. Political equips you to engage systems, not just react to them. Situations is where all of that either becomes real — or doesn't.
The framework only becomes real when you use it. Bring a situation you're actually wrestling with and walk through CHIPS step by step.
Describe a political situation you're wrestling with. CHIPS will guide you through each step.
What political situation are you trying to think through?
To get you started
"What has Christ actually said about this — not what you've been told he'd say?"
Questions to sit with
"What is actually driving your reaction to this situation?"
Questions to sit with
"Can you read this situation clearly — the people, the power, the stakes — or are you operating on assumption?"
Questions to sit with
"Do you understand how power actually works in this situation — and are you prepared to engage it wisely, not naively?"
Questions to sit with
"This is the moment. What will you actually do — and are you prepared to own the consequences?"
Questions to sit with
CHIPS is not opinion. It is a framework built on serious philosophical and theological work — and more is underway.
CHIPS is grounded in the same thinkers who shaped Western thinking about freedom, citizenship, virtue, and the role of institutions in forming human character. This is not academic window dressing — it is the load-bearing structure of the framework.
The core insight comes from the intersection of three traditions: Hegel's account of how freedom becomes actual in institutions and shared life, Tocqueville's analysis of how democratic citizens are formed (or deformed) by the associations they inhabit, and Aristotle's ethics of virtue and practical wisdom. These three are then anchored in the normative ground of Christ — not as a decoration added afterward, but as the telos that gives all of it its direction.
These six thinkers form the core of active research. Each brings something the others need.
Freedom, institutions, ethical life, and how individuals become actual through shared social structures.
How associations form democratic character and why civic engagement is a theological question.
The interior life of political conviction — what happens in the soul when ideology replaces faith.
Justice, the soul, and why the ordering of the city reflects the ordering — or disorder — of its citizens.
Practical wisdom, moral formation, and what it means to be a good citizen in a political community.
The earliest Christian engagement with political philosophy and the Logos as the ground of all truth.
Deep reading of the Introduction, working through §1–§31 with annotations and guiding questions.
Refining each component — Christ, Heart, In, Political, Situations — with academic and theological grounding.
How democratic associations shape moral formation and what the church can recover from this insight.
Connecting the ethics of virtue and practical wisdom to the CHIPS formation framework.
Every piece of research feeds directly into CHIPS. When Hegel's account of ethical life is understood correctly, it clarifies why the "In" component is about more than good intentions — it's about the developed capacity to actually operate within real institutions. When Tocqueville's analysis of associations is taken seriously, it reframes the "Situations" component as not just a personal decision but a civic act.
The research is ongoing. The framework will grow with it. Submissions from users will also shape future development — real situations produce real learning.
The research behind CHIPS is serious work. If you have a background in philosophy, political science, theology, or related fields — or if you simply want to contribute to this project — reach out.
Studies designed to help Christians understand brokenness, power, and the call of Christ in public life.
These studies are built to be used individually or in small groups. Each one connects Scripture to the political and social realities Christians navigate every day. New studies are added as they are developed and vetted.
Matthew 5:13–16 and the call to faithful presence — not retreat, not conquest, but witness.
What Paul actually said about governing authorities — and what he didn't say.
Reading the Beatitudes as a formation document for citizens of a different kingdom.
What Jeremiah's letter to the exiles teaches us about being faithful in a nation that is not our home.
How the wisdom tradition speaks to the formation of citizens, not just individuals.
Isaiah, Amos, and Micah on justice, power, and the God who sides with the vulnerable.
Suggest a Study
Studies are developed based on what CHIPS users actually need. If there's a political situation you're wrestling with and a passage you think speaks to it, let us know.
CHIPS is more than a tool — it's a growing conversation. Here's how to stay in it.
A newsletter on faith, formation, and political life. Published on LinkedIn — where the CHIPS research and framework development is shared in accessible, readable form.
Read The Keystone PressA podcast for Christians navigating political life — conversations with thinkers, practitioners, and everyday people working through what faithful political engagement actually looks like. Launching soon.
Follow the ongoing research, framework development, and conversations about faith and political life.
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New studies, framework developments, and resources — only when there's something worth saying.
A formation project for Christians who want their politics shaped by Christ — not the other way around.
Writer, researcher, and practitioner working at the intersection of Christian faith, political philosophy, and civic formation.
CHIPS started with a simple observation: Christians in America are some of the most politically engaged people in the country — and some of the least equipped to explain why they believe what they believe, where Christ actually fits in, or how they'd respond if the answer turned out to be inconvenient.
That's not an indictment. It's a description of the environment we're all formed in. The culture wars are fast. Careful thinking is slow. The political media ecosystem is optimized for outrage and loyalty — not reflection and faithfulness.
CHIPS is an attempt to build a tool for the slower, harder work. Not to tell Christians what to think, but to give them a repeatable structure for thinking it through themselves — starting with Christ, every time.
The framework is grounded in years of serious study. Hegel's account of how freedom becomes actual through institutions and shared ethical life. Tocqueville's analysis of how civic associations form democratic character — and how their loss produces citizens who cannot govern themselves. Aristotle's ethics of virtue and practical wisdom. Plato's insistence that the disorder of the city reflects the disorder of the soul. Dostoevsky's unflinching account of what happens when ideology replaces genuine faith.
And anchoring all of it: Justin Martyr's earliest Christian engagement with political philosophy, and the conviction that Christ is the Logos — the ground of all truth, the one in whom all of these insights find their telos.
This is not decoration. The framework is only as strong as the thinking behind it. That thinking is ongoing.
CHIPS is built toward something larger than a website. The goal is a formation system — a structured way of moving people from unexamined belief toward disciplined understanding and faithful action. Not just for individuals, but for communities, associations, and eventually institutions.
Tocqueville saw that democratic character is formed through participation in voluntary associations — the thousand small communities in which citizens practice the habits of self-government. The church is exactly this kind of association, or it should be. CHIPS is an attempt to equip it to do what it was always supposed to do: form citizens who can think for themselves, love their neighbors genuinely, and engage power without being captured by it.
One of the specific concerns CHIPS addresses is the drift of American Christianity toward nationalism — the fusion of Christian identity with national identity in ways that compromise both.
Christian nationalism, in its various forms, treats America's political interests as synonymous with God's interests, wraps the gospel in the flag, and produces a faith that is more tribal than transformative. It is a serious theological error — and one that is doing real damage to the credibility of the gospel in our time.
CHIPS does not take partisan political positions. But it does insist that Christ cannot be conscripted into the service of any nation, party, or political project. The cross stands over every flag. The gospel is addressed to every people. And any Christianity that forgets this has already lost the plot.
If you've been shaped by Christian nationalist assumptions — and many of us have, often without realizing it — CHIPS is a tool for examining and rebuilding your political convictions on firmer, more faithful ground.
The best way to understand CHIPS is to use it. Bring a real situation — one you've been reacting to more than thinking through — and walk the five steps.