Tomorrow You Will Eat Your Words!

If Jesus himself were running for political office, I would not give him an endorsement as pastor of my church.

But Jesus is not now—nor will he ever be—running for political office. He taught us clearly that politics itself is far too feeble a tool to get done what he is trying to do on this earth. Jesus is not blind to politics and politicians—he sees right through them.

The church is a force for good in this world because it is beholden to no politicians. It speaks and ministers by the authority of no earthly government. It salutes the flag of God Almighty and answers to him alone.

This transcendent task and independent status of the church is essential to its nature. If the church becomes the benevolence branch of government, it loses its own soul.
So the church rightfully insists that government not intervene in its internal affairs.
The vote is a sacred trust in our democracy. It is our most fundamental right and responsibility as citizens. Every eligible citizen should be registered to vote and should take the time and make the hard choices on Election Day.

Pastors should not be endorsing political candidates as part of their official duties in the church. Such an endorsement trivializes the house of worship and threatens the constitutional separation of the institutions of church and state.

Tax exempt status has been granted to the churches for generations because churches are partners with government in seeking the well-being of the citizenry. Churches and other houses of worship seek to care for the sick and dying, reach out to the poor and needy, and help those who cannot help themselves.

Additionally, churches are supported financially through the voluntary gifts of citizens who pay taxes. Taxing these charitable gifts amounts to double dipping by government.

Pastors who endorse political candidates threaten the balance of this arrangement between the church and the government. They do so, not because they are denied opinions on current issues, but because they seek to reconstitute government in their own image.

The founders of our country did not want pastors running the affairs of government. Such an intrusion would violate the democratic principle of elected representation. So the U.S. Congress was prohibited by the First Amendment from making any law which established a favored religion or prohibited the free exercise of any religion.

That means that churches do not do their work with tax money, and government does not do its work with church money. The institutions operate separately but jointly in an effort to bless the citizenry.

Pastors are at liberty to address any and all moral issues in this country, complimenting and criticizing government and government leaders for successes and failures as they see them. These comments do not threaten their tax exempt status.

But when churches start acting like political parties, rallying their constituency and endorsing candidates for office, they are intruding on the institutions of government and seeking by religious means to achieve political goals. Their tax exempt status is in jeopardy.

Houses of worship are properly concerned with eternal standards of behavior like justice, truth, and love. Pastors endorse these qualities of human conduct as ideals toward which we strive both as individuals and as societies. Pastors are responsible for speaking out when these standards are violated whether that failure is individual or systemic.

Individual politicians and political parties never embody these perfect virtues perfectly. A word to the wise: if you choose today to endorse a candidate or a political party as “Christian,” tomorrow you will eat your words.