pulpit avoid politics? It depends on what we mean by “politics”; it demeans the
pulpit to use it for partisan politics.
separated:
1) The Word of God
has something to say about all of life, beyond just the spiritual.
My
long-time pastor, Dr. D. James Kennedy, once noted that the Church of Jesus
Christ has always been opposed to abortion—from the very beginning. It still
is.
In the last generation, abortion has become a “political” issue. Does
that mean, asked Dr. Kennedy, we should now ignore it in the pulpit? No, because
the Bible is pro-life.
2) The Bible itself addresses the issue of
governing in different texts.
There are biblical books dealing with
political rulers—1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Judges. In Genesis and in
Daniel, we see godly men serving well in pagan courts, for the good of all. In
Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, we hear that God has established the civil magistrate,
and we are to obey the government. In Exodus, we see Moses rebuking Pharaoh for
mistreating the Hebrews.
3) The Scriptures also teach that on
occasion, there may be a need for civil disobedience.
When the apostles
were commanded to no longer preach the gospel, Peter said that we must obey God
rather than man. If there is an either/or, then civil disobedience can be the
right path. Many early Christians died for Christ rather than worship the
emperor, clearly a false god.
4) “Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Someone will be involved in politics. Why should we abandon our role as
citizens? According to Jesus, we have a positive duty to render certain
obligation to the state.
5) When the Church does not speak out, evil
can fill that void.
Silence in the face of evil can signal assent. We
hold up those Christians who went against Hitler and the Nazis as heroes – not
the millions who acquiesced to them.
The December 23, 1940, TIME Magazine
article called, Religion: German Martyrs, opens: “Not you, Herr Hitler, but God
is my Führer. These defiant words of Pastor Martin Niemoller were echoed by
millions of Germans. And Hitler raged: ‘It is Niemoller or I.'”
6) The
Church is called to be salt and light. Salt preserves and prevents
decay.
Christians in society should help prevent corruption. As goes the
pulpit, so goes the nation.
7) We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.”
That doesn’t mean we should try and
force the kingdom of God by use of the sword. When “Christians” did that in
times past, we are still apologizing for it, as in the Crusades, the
Inquisition, the Salem Witchcraft trials. But it does mean that Christians can
apply biblical principles to government that result in good for all of us. And
to be sure, someone’s morality is always being legislated. It is not a question
of “if” but of “what” and of “whose”.
8) Christians bless everybody
when we properly apply our faith to politics.
Our Constitution was an
outgrowth of the biblical concept of covenant. University of Houston Professor
Dr. Donald S. Lutz, author of The Origins of American Constitutionalism, said
that Americans “invented modern Constitutionalism and bequeathed it to the
world.” And where did we get it? Says Lutz: “The American constitutional
tradition derives in much of its form and content from the Judeo-Christian
tradition as interpreted by the radical Protestant sects to which belonged so
many of the original European settlers in British North America.”
9)
Politics may be the calling of some in the congregation.
motivated by the desire to serve.
When the Member of Parliament William
Wilberforce was converted in the 1780s, he sought counsel from Rev. John Newton,
an ex-slave-trader. Should he leave politics and pursue the ministry? Newton
advised him to stay because maybe God could use him where he
was.
Wilberforce’s crusade to free the slaves in the British Empire took
him 50 years and was a direct outgrowth of his faith in Christ. I shudder to
think if one of today’s “no politics” ministers had counseled the young reborn
Wilberforce. We might still have legal slavery in the Western
world.
10) Religion and morality are “indispensable supports to our
political prosperity”.
So said Washington in his Farewell Address. John
Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It
is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This was in a day when
about 99% of the Americans were professing Christians. And on it goes.
I
remember when I once interviewed former Secretary of Education William Bennett,
who said, “Does anybody really have a worry that the United States is becoming
overly pious? That our young people have dedicated too much of their lives to
prayer, that teenagers in this country are preoccupied with thoughts of
eternity?” In short, our problem today is not too much Christian influence on
society, but not enough.
