Pastors' Pulpit Politics Draw Complaints

bigd808 »

Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:40 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 0

Endorsing a candidate from the pulpit divides the Body. These Pastors can’t see past their buildings; the Church is bigger than their building, city, state or this political season. How can a pastor say that another candidate is against God without suggesting his/her supporters are also against Him? In this instance, if a Christian doesn’t support John McCain, then these Pastors have questioned that person’s faith. For the Body of Christ to be strong, we all have to be in agreement on the issues that matter. Christians exist in every walk of life and in each of the two major parties. If we could remember that, we would think very carefully about presenting a political candidate when delivering God’s message.

The absolute low point of this story has nothing to do with religion and politics, but rather with shameless tactics. What really angers me is that these Pastors are going out on a limb to make sure they are persecuted. While most non-believers could care less what gets said in a church full of willing parishioners (Rev. Wright being the obvious exception), their sermons were recorded and then sent to the IRS with the intent of starting a legal fight. This is not what the Church needs today. We have larger issues that need to be addressed and every minute and dollar spent on this self-inflicted wound takes time and money away from helping where Christians are needed. Pastors shouldn’t endorse a candidate – with or without a tax exemption clause – because it can only end in division. Whoever the next President is, we should all be praying for him.