Posted on 11/03/2014 4:58:04 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
A group called Alliance Defending Freedom organized a group of around 1,600 pastors who endorsed candidates from the pulpit in the weeks leading up to tomorrows election. Since the 1950’s the IRS has banned 501(c)(3) tax exempt churches from engaging in political activity, including endorsing candidates. The IRS has never enforced the law. Every few years the government sends out warning letters but it’s never actually taken the law to court. They likely know it wouldn’t be upheld by the Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom appears to be a conservative group and as such their 1,600 pastors appear to be largely endorsing Republican candidates. Odds are these endorsements won’t swing the election but it is an exercise in religious freedom.
While pastors have the freedom to endorse candidates from the pulpit the question remains whether or not they should. It’s one thing to endorse someone running for office who makes no secret he is a Christian who will govern in a Biblical manner. It’s another thing to endorse someone who is only less evil than the Democrat. In the case of the 2012 Presidential election, it was absurd seeing Christians endorse a Mormon cultist claiming he was somehow better than the practical atheist. A candidate is either with Jesus Christ or he is against him. In the case of Romney vs Obama, both were opponents of Christ and it was absurd to watch pastors dance around the issue. Why should the Church lend its support to an evil man simply because he’s only slightly less evil than the other guy?
For pastors they need to ask themselves whether there aren’t more important issues to be preached on from the pulpit. One of the great progressive errors of the last century in the church has been the social gospel. In 2014 we think of the social gospel as conservative, in reality its roots are progressive. These folks believe that if only we had the right laws and the right people enforcing the law the spiritual health of the country would return. Outlawing the sale of liquor in the 1920’s did not lead to national or even individual salvation. Likewise banning abortions and homosexual marriage in 2014 won’t lead to national or individual salvation. We need to stop pretending like we can save the nation through law and political action. Law only reflects the spiritual state of our nation, which at this point in time is relatively evil. Changing the law won’t change hearts. Yet the evangelical church for the last century seems to believe that law will change hearts. Law didn’t change the hearts of the pharisees, only Christ changes hearts.
The question for pastors endorsing candidates is whether they’re ignoring more pressing spiritual needs in their congregation in order to stick it to the IRS. Are their sins in the congregation that need to be preached on? Would a continuation of a sermon series be more important and spiritually beneficial to the congregation? The problem with the Alliance Defending Freedom is that it’s encouraging pastors to focus on politics over and above other spiritual concerns that may be more important in individual congregations. It’s one thing if a pastor feels called to endorse a particular candidate, it’s another thing if the pastor is endorsing candidates for no other reason than he’s part of Alliance Defending Freedom and he feels he has to make endorsements to be part of a political movement.
Ultimately Christians need to be praying for our civil magistrates. We need to be praying for more Godly candidates. Rather than spending one Sunday endorsing candidates, the church might be better served by a series on Godly government and Godly leaders. There is plenty in scripture on these topics and they’re almost never preached on in evangelical circles. One of the big problems with the evangelical movement is that it hops from one hot fire issue to the next, all of which are treated like they’re the most important thing ever. There never seems to be time to preach on the basics of Christian government and thus the congregation hops from one big political issue to the next without any real guidance about what it’s all for or what the end goal is. This is why the social gospel is such a failure, eventually there is a new issue to get outraged about leaving the old issues behind. There’s no base understanding of Christian civil government and without a base all of these issues become stand alone and largely meaningless. Rather than endorsing candidates, pastors should instead preach on Christian civil government or in the alternative preach topics which are more pressing in their congregation.
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We would be much better off as a County if we had Mitt Romney as President vs. the current occupant of the WH.
Economically perhaps the country would be better off with Romney. However spiritually the difference between Obama and Romney is zero. The country would be no better off with a cultist over an atheist.
There’s more to being “right with Jesus” than simply proclaiming him as savior. Faith without works is dead. So if we’re talking about a pol who claims faith but also supports baby killing, we’re not talking about an actual Christian. We have to look beyond a simple declaration of faith.
“Economically perhaps the country would be better off with Romney. However spiritually the difference between Obama and Romney is zero. The country would be no better off with a cultist over an atheist.”
Mitt Romney would have lead us to a much better Economy - I agree. The better Economy would have lead us to be a stronger country.
Mitt Romney has Character and Inspires Trust and is a Godly Man.
Obama Exemplifies all that is Evil and Bad in the World and is an Ungodly indiviual.
Indiviual = Individual
I wish FR had an EDIT Function.
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