I avoid political partisanship like the plague. In 13 1/2 years as a senior pastor, I have never endorsed a political candidate for state or federal office. In fact, the only political candidate I have ever publicly supported is a pastor friend who ran for county council–and even then I did so with trepidation.
I don’t avoid politics because I am not engaged in the political process. I avoid politics because I serve a higher power and I refuse to be aligned with a politician or a political party. I also refuse to disenfranchise people who might have different political leanings than I do. I want Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in our church. I want people of all stripes to hear the gospel and be saved, so I make sure that I make people of all stripes welcome.
I am also keenly aware that when I align myself with another person or group, that person or group can be used by others to define who I am. I am a Carolina Gamecock fan, so some people assume that I support everything that the Gamecocks do–I assure you, however, that I do not support losing incessantly. Likewise, if I were to support a political candidate, then my ministry is defined by my support for that candidate.
But beyond that, I avoid political partisanship because this world is not our home and my hopes and dreams are not bound up in the actions of any politician.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he said this,
There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call–one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Before Paul, the Psalmist reminded Israel, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Pastor, you have a higher responsibility than to any politician or political party. We don’t trust in politics to save us, our country, or our world. We don’t trust in the normal machinations of the world to accomplish God’s purposes. We trust in the name of the Lord our God.
As Christians, we have one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of all. When we begin to add to that, we dabble in idolatry and create a syncretistic religion that is something, but not Christian.
One hundred years ago J. Gresham Machen warned that Liberal Christianity was not Christianity at all, but some other religion altogether. When Christianity becomes infected with politics, it ceases to be Christianity, but becomes something else altogether, a religion where the adherents are re-defined by their political partisanship or their commitment to some worldly cause. Rather than clinging to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, leaders of this syncretistic religion welcome in those who have no commitment to historic Christianity–those who can’t even properly pronounce the books of the Bible or who live lives that are antithetical to the Scripture.
When pastors turn from biblical Christianity and welcome proud sinners with open arms as their leaders, pastors become complicit with the sin of their syncretistic leader. It should have made the blood of every Christian in America run cold when a prominent pastor said “I’ve said I want the meanest, toughest SOB I can find to protect this nation. And so that’s why Trump’s tone doesn’t bother me.”
These are supposed to be WWJD people. What would Jesus do? Can anyone imagine Jesus saying that? Can anyone imagine Jesus blessing that? Does that sound like Jesus or the religion he founded? Do we remember John the Baptist? The prophet of God who called out the sin of the king and was decapitated?
In the place of God’s prophets, we have political sycophants.
Jesus could have had the ear of Pilate or Herod. Jesus could have walked in the palaces of kings, but he died in the place of sinners.
Syncretism must be rooted out and discarded, regardless of where it is found.
Jesus didn’t die so that we could hate our enemies and wage ideological war against them. Jesus certainly didn’t die so that rioters could invade the U. S. Capitol waiving Christian flags.
Jesus died so that we might live and he urged to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Jesus died to bring about a revolution, but his Kingdom is not of this world. Pastor, where are you building your kingdom?
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
