“A time to keep silence, and a time to speak,” said the Preacher of Ecclesiastes. This fall, as Election Day approaches, American preachers face the quandary of what to say and what not to say. Unfortunately, Solomon isn’t around for counsel.
I went to a large church this past summer and listened to a nationally known guest minister. A U.S. senator and several other political dignitaries were there as well, and before the morning was over, Christian faith had been thoroughly mingled with conservative politics.
I sat thinking about two or three friends of mine, members of that church, who are leaders in the “other” party. They are Bible-believing, spiritual men who love God, but they must have felt like foreigners that morning-in their own church. This is wrong, I said to myself.
But must pastors say nothing about political affairs? Is the whole subject taboo?
We have been tripped up by our labels. We’ve been talking about being conservative or liberal, right-wing or left-wing, rather than what Scripture defines for us: right versus wrong. Certain friends label me conservative, while others have decided I’m liberal; neither tag bothers me too much. What does concern me is my integrity.
I was playing golf with the pastor of a large church recently, and when the talk turned to politics, I said, “Are you conservative or liberal?”
He alertly responded, “On what issues?”
“Well, choose them yourself,” I said.
“I’m very conservative theologically,” he replied, “and therefore I’m very liberal politically.”
I was intrigued by his word therefore, as if the matter were automatic. I asked about that, and he said yes, the one dictated the other.
So I asked, “Are you for bureaucracy?”
“No, I’m strongly opposed to it.”
“Then how are you going to administer the liberal approaches? How are you going to contain human greed and avarice? How will you control people’s tendency to sin if you don’t have lots of bureaucratic structure?”
He paused for a moment and said, “Well, frankly I’ve never thought about that, but I will.” He is a sincere man and will think about it. I feel his choice of label wasn’t biblically based.
On the other hand, when the speaker that summer morning said Reagan was the greatest president since Lincoln, I thought of Kierkegaard’s statement about the church. The problem, he said, is that nobody laughs. We’ve taken our fanaticism seriously. Now I don’t mind telling you I voted for Reagan four years ago, and I’ll do so again next month-but not because he’s the greatest president since Lincoln.
I believe there’s a place for the fanatical right, in that they balance off the fanatical left. Our country has in recent times been like a high-wire walker with too much of his pole sticking out one direction. I’m delighted to see some people feeling strongly about adding to the short end. But my desire as a Christian is to be in neither fanatical group. The Devil doesn’t care whether Christians fall into the left ditch or the right ditch, just so they stay off the road marked out by Scripture and illuminated by the Spirit of God.
The personality trap
The first real danger for Christian leaders is endorsing personalities instead of principles. I am not saying, “Stay out of politics.” That is the same as saying, “Stay out of life.” The argument that would put politics out of bounds for a preacher can be used to put economics, social life, health care, and all the rest out of bounds, and you wind up restricting the preacher to the hereafter. That’s not what Christ had in mind, or he would have taken his followers to the hereafter immediately.
Every Christian leader should be involved in all areas of life. The big question is how?
I say, by enunciating the principles of Scripture and the mystery of God. Not by aligning with political personalities.
There’s nothing wrong with a pastor coming to a biblical understanding of the wrongness of abortion and preaching it, so long as persons and parties are not named. That pastor is simply declaring the whole counsel of God. But to attach one’s position to a given politician is courting trouble, not only in God’s eyes but also from government agencies.
But we must stand clear of this trap, and I will go a step further: We must preach our principles in scriptural rather than ecclesiastical terms. The Catholic bishops’ recent statement on nuclear policy said, in a sense, that if you’re a good Catholic, you’ll believe this way. Protestants have sometimes done the same thing: To be a good Methodist or Baptist, you couldn’t dance, or gamble, or see certain picture shows. The issue is not being a good organization member. The issue is being right or wrong according to Scripture.
The thirst for power
The second great danger is using our theological position to obtain human power and prestige. You don’t get power by enunciating principles. Power only comes by aligning with personalities.
As Christian leaders, what do we seek? Are we serious about stating the principles of God and letting the personalities fall where they may, or are we lusting to make friends in high places?
I was at another fast-growing church recently where the mayor showed up. The pastor, who is politically oriented, spotted him in the crowd and invited him to pronounce the benediction. Then the mayor, of course, had to make a few remarks about the greatness of the pastor, the wonderful growth of the church, and how God was blessing in such a mighty way.
Well, I doubt the mayor’s spiritual sensitivity to know what God was or wasn’t doing. But the crowd loved it regardless. They went home thinking, We’re important. We’re now being recognized by the political powers that be. Our pastor has good connections. And the glory of God was used for the glory of man.
Most of us have split motives: We try to accomplish black and white with the same act-an impossibility. Because there is some good in what we do, we tend to overlook the bad. But God sees through it all.
One of our great underlying temptations is to turn America into a theocracy, because then we theologians would be the natural leaders. If only we could get our hands on the levers of power, we could straighten this country out.
I believe there are good reasons for political leaders to be separate from theologians. When church and state become one, your enemies are either traitors or heretics, and if you can’t convict them of one, you switch to the other. The result is a lot of witch burning.
We can seek, with the best of motives, to take over the government “to save it.” Ambitious people have used that reasoning for centuries. Every military coup employs the same language, no matter how corrupt or ruthless its members: “We had to rescue this country from ______.” But what are the real motives?
Remember the slave girl who followed the apostle Paul all around Philippi saying, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved” (Acts 16:17). Which was true. Then why did Paul get irritated at this free public-relations effort? It came from an evil spirit.
I’m sure as soon as he called the demon out of her, she stopped her promotional campaign. But what happened? Her owners began losing money, went to the magistrates, and complained that Paul and Silas were upsetting the city.
They were doing no such thing. They were simply shutting off a few greedy individuals’ source of revenue.
People who are not in leadership positions have a great tendency to say such and such is badly needed for other people’s welfare, when what they are really concerned about is their own welfare. Does America “need” the conservative or liberal agenda? I think we very badly need to reestablish the Christian experience, out of which the Christian ethic and tradition come. Another way of saying that is we badly need a revival.
If the preachers currently trying to lead the political process can bring revival along with their politics, we’ll have a basis for restoring Christian principles in this country. But if all they accomplish is their political agenda, they will have left the highest calling known to humanity to go run bureaucracies.
This exchange tantalizes us by giving us a modus operandi for accomplishing our will. Ministers are often long on wishes and short on power to fulfill them. Once you get into politics, you can pass laws, institute penalties, fines, prison sentences . . . and you’re right back to heresy and treason.
Didn’t Christ urge us to get away from legalism? Then why are we yearning to take over the political structure? Ours is a minority religion, and if we become the majority, we fall prey to the same arrogance that haunts all earthly leaders.
The task this fall, as I see it, is to clearly explain biblical principles of right and wrong-ever conscious of our own human weakness, our temptation to power, to legalism, to self-righteousness. In the midst of a noisy campaign, let the pulpit speak only that which He puts in our mouth. That is the best contribution the church can make to a needy America in the eighties.
-Fred Smith
Dallas, Texas
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