Posted on 10/07/2018 6:14:42 PM PDT by cradle of freedom
Pastors can do very much to get out the Christian vote. They have a captive audience in their churches every Sunday so why not take advantage of that in a way that is totally legal. Several weeks before the election just do a sermon on the Christian duty of patriotism. Yes, patriotism is a Christian virtue. Christians are called to be faithful stewards and looking out for our children's future is part of that duty. Also being responsible with the public's money is also a very important duty of being a Christian. We have a duty to winnow out the chaff from among the politicians. There are many dishonest politicians who think that the public's money is really their own, we have to look out for signs of dishonesty. I know it is sometimes hard but we have to do our best.
Pastors can find quotes in the Bible that are fitting and appropriate as well as the many words of wisdom from the Founding Fathers.
On the Sunday before election day, Pastors can give their congregation another gentle reminder that it is election day the following Tuesday.
If you are a pastor please consider this and pass it on to your friends who are also pastors.
If there was, Jesse Jackson would have to stay home.
I understand your point, I think, but - “wall of separation” is a phrase in a letter - a friendly letter - from POTUS Jefferson to a Baptist group in Connecticut. Not in the Constitution. The separation is not between Christian influence and the government, but between government influence and Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. To be blunt, there were no other significant religions among the polity of the US at the time.You are right to scent trouble ahead, because there is always possible trouble ahead. POTUS Obama was trouble, and POTUS candidate Trump rightly promised to protect churches from it. Good judges alone make a fine start, but he also has promised to change the IRS rule that churches aren’t supposed to preach politics.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.As to the tax issue, the money the churches spend for pastors - and whatever else - tends to be taxed to the recipients. That’s not unique to churches, of course - corporations have the same issue - but the principle is valid that the government reduces the value of the money the church gets in that way.It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? - Washington’s Farewell Address
No Church has ever has its tax exempt status taken away over politics from the pulpit nor has the IRS ever had the guts to even take such a case to trial. They know they would lose as such an action would be blatantly unconstitutional.
Trump promised to end the Johnson Amendment. I don’t think he has yet, but I’m not sure. If he has, then what’s said in church politically should be perfectly OK.
“I don’t want to hear anything political from my pastors.”
I do. If my preacher is off the rails politically, he’s got problems Biblically.
“I go to hear them talk about God not politics.”
It’s mandatory to hear them talk about God, but most preachers today are pretty shallow when it comes to deep theology.
# 23: I understand your point, I think, but - “wall of separation” is a phrase in a letter - a friendly letter - from POTUS Jefferson to a Baptist group in Connecticut. Not in the Constitution. The separation is not between Christian influence and the government, but between government influence and Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.
Yes, agreed. Too many Americans speak of the separation of Church and State without knowing the facts.
Thomas Jefferson (in a private correspondence) spoke of a separation between Church FROM State. {establishment of a State-run Church}
He never intended to separate Church AND State, simply because we are a Nation founded on Judeo-Christian precepts, and without them we will become weaker as a Country.
“Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants” ~ William Penn, 1668
But they won’t.
I learned that painful lesson in 2012. Obama had basically declared war on the Church with his health care law, yet they held their tongues.
It’s impossible NOT to, given how debased the culture and country have become thanks to the left doing Satan’s bidding.
Fine. Then tax them.
This is close to what I am getting at—a basic and general appeal to patriotism without telling people to vote this way or that way. A pastor has the whole year to preach about whatever he wants to preach about but a few weeks before an election the pastor can do a special sermon about how really blessed we are to have had a free country and how we must work to keep it free. That is all, inspire people to think about our country. Turn their minds to their civic duty as citizens and how it is their duty to protect their children so that they too will enjoy the freedoms of being an American including the rights to worship God.
Turn people’s thoughts to the importance of the political process to get them interested so that they will read and learn all they can about politics in preparation for voting. Then the Sunday before election day simply remind the congregation that Tuesday is election day. That’s all.
Answer—the kind of pastors that share our values here on Free Republic. The liberal churches are all organizing and have been for years.
This is just a get out the vote campaign to coax some of the more apathetic people to get out and vote. Have you noticed the democrats are always trying to get out the vote and they are very organized but we are just so so.
God and politics are tied together because God made the earth and gave us stewardship over it. Politics is part of stewardship.
You didn’t pay close attention to what I wrote. No one could lose their tax-free status for supporting patriotism and quoting the Founding Fathers. A subtle approach is what I am talking about.
Self righteousness is thinking you are righteous and don't need the blood of Jesus to face God. If your church supports sodomy, you are claiming God accepts it. That is heresy.
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