The Church and Politics, part III

This is my third time writing on politics and the church, particularly the separation of church and state, in this year. Most of what I write here are not new thoughts--even for this blog. However, the first two times I wrote on this subject it was specifically in the context of the church and marriage, and this is not. This is a newsletter to the congregations I serve, venting some of my frustrations with churches that are playing politics to the detriment of everything that the church should be. My first two posts on the subject can be found here and here.

I don’t know about you, but I am completely numb to this year’s election. Actually, I pretty much was by the time it had begun. I receive mailings at the church almost every day telling me how to vote and, more often, telling me how to tell you to vote. It’s saddening in a way I can hardly express. The church, in many places, seems nothing more than a political arm of various interest groups—a far cry from anything the Book of Acts would have imagined.

            And that’s just what gets me. I see the Holy Spirit doing all sorts of great things with God’s church in Kittson County. I see a ton of opportunity; a ton of good being done for this community—the opening of the Cornerstone Food Pantry this past week being one very visible example. Simply, the church up here is doing exactly what the church should be doing: worshiping God and caring for the needy. Most people up here get it, which makes it all the more upsetting when we’re told by outside agencies what we need to do, how we need to vote, and that they represent God’s will. I want to call this what it is, but the only language appropriate for this is also unfit to print in a newsletter.

            I am appalled.

            I count history as one of my primary academic interests, especially early American history, and this year the figure I have read about more than any other is Roger Williams—a 17^th century Puritan minister and founder of Rhode Island. Probably I have read so much on Williams because, in this election year, I have found myself in the same kinds of quandaries that he faced. The Puritan establishment in the 1600s believed in a theocracy where the church and the government were essentially synonymous, because they believed that this was the only way to create a “New Jerusalem” with God lording as king over the perfect government. It sounded like a great idea, except that the churchly government, using God as its justification, tended to act all the more cruel and inhumane.

            Williams was excommunicated from the church. He believed that the only government worth anything was a government whose foremost responsibility was the liberty of the people, especially regarding freedom of religion and freedom of speech. A theocracy, by its nature, forbade both. Williams understood that the church wasn’t making the people more holy by influencing the government; all it was doing was making the church more corrupt. So, he founded Rhode Island on the principle of the separation of church and state; not because he wanted to take power from the church but because he wanted to remove the church from the corruption that came with being intertwined with the politics of the state.

            Our church faces the same temptation today. As a pastor, I face the same temptation today. Other churches—even some in our county—have given in to preaching political messages and spreading propaganda. I can’t tell you how much that disappoints me. I want to speak well of my neighbors, but there is also a time for calling a thing what it is, and this is a corruption of the Gospel. I will not preach a political agenda; not because of some government regulations but because I am far more concerned that you hear about Jesus than I am with influencing how you vote.

            Go ahead and vote your convictions on Election Day, and when somebody asks you what your church is saying about the election tell them the truth. We aren’t. We’re talking about Jesus, God’s grace, the cross, the resurrection; the same things we always talk about; things much more important to us than any political agenda.

            God's peace in this election season.