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An Open Letter to Pastors Who “Don’t Do Politics”

August 19, 2024
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Dear Faithful Shepherds,

Goodness knows, it’s hard out there nowadays for church leadership in America. Tensions are high, and the air is thick with opinions. Nobody has a polite disagreement anymore; every conversation about current events has the potential to devolve into a 3 AM Waffle House fight.

So, I completely understand your desire to avoid politics. Any pastor who has his priorities straight is going to want to keep the gospel as the Main Thing, and when that’s your perspective, it’s easy to see politics as an inflammatory, unnecessary distraction. You wouldn’t bring it up any more than you would preach a sermon series on who has the best bar-b-q or why Android is really better than the iPhone.

But while your motives for staying out of the cage fight of American politics may have been perfectly reasonable in the past, I urge you to take another look at that fight, how it affects the lives of your congregation, and the proper role of the church in it.

Many years ago, someone whom I don’t feel like googling right now coined the phrase, “The personal is political.” Even though that may only sound like a sticker on the backpack of a pink-haired college sophomore, it’s an idea that has completely saturated every aspect of life in America. Every day, all day long, anything you do is potentially fraught with political implications, from the books you read to the clothes you wear to the restaurant where you choose to enjoy a delicious chicken sandwich. There are a lot of our countrymen who think that the act of just going to a church is itself a political statement.

You can’t watch your faithful church members run that gauntlet all week and then pretend like it doesn’t exist on Sunday. It’s not all just arguments on Facebook; people are fighting real battles with their kids’ schools, with their HR department at work, with family members who are out to ruin every holiday gathering. Ignoring these struggles seems at best oblivious and at worst simply uncaring.

It doesn’t mean that you have to exegete out God’s position on every 0.25% increase in state excise taxes. But when politics extends its tentacles into everything, it’s not surprising when political fights fall into good vs. evil territory, and those fights are definitely the business of the church. 

Christians who can’t leave their house without being browbeaten about how everything they believe is stupid and hateful aren’t going to show up at church hoping for commentary from #TeamNeutral. They are looking for guidance down a very narrow and treacherous path. Does that involve choosing sides? Yes, of course it does. The only people who say that everyone is equally at fault are the people who are actually at fault.

By pooh-poohing political discussions, you also deny your congregation the chance to wrestle with the issues involved from a biblical perspective. We should be thinking about all these things biblically. In what other area of life do pastors hope to inspire more biblical-mindedness by never talking about it?

Church Member: “We sure are having a lot of problems with stealing in our congregation lately.”

Pastor: “Well, then, I’d better not say anything about it from the pulpit. Wouldn’t want anyone to think I was choosing sides between people who believe stealing is a sin and people who run global internet scams.”

Church Member: “Darn right, Pastor! Now let me just jot down your social security number and I’ll get outta your hair.”

The state of American politics today is not the result of too much input from the church. What we’re seeing there is the same thing that happens anywhere that Christians refuse to engage. We have left a great void, and into that void have rushed people who aren’t shy about choosing up sides and aren’t squeamish about fighting for their standards.

I would never presume to tell you what you should preach. You have been called and anointed into leadership. How you choose to fulfill that anointing is entirely between you and God. But you are not called to silence. About anything.

So I urge you, pastors, to understand your calling in the context of the time and place you are called. We are blessed to be in the position to influence the politics of our nation. Give your flock the encouragement, the fortitude, and the guidance they need to use that influence to the glory of God.

An Open Letter to Pastors Who “Don’t Do Politics”

3,654 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 2 mo ago by Sweet Foot Slim
Jeff.West.USA
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You hooked me with your article title, you annoyed me with your "head in the sand" image. I think I understand what you are trying to do, but the article misses the mark. As an expository preacher, I do not shy away from difficult biblical texts... any text. I think the failure to clearly define "don't do politics" is what weakened your article. I do not "preach politics." I preach BIBLICAL TRUTH and VALUES. Preaching "politics" if commonly understood and embracing a partisan gateway to the gospel... very problematic. The Bible addresses values and morality that have implication for political realm and it is appropriate to speak directly to and illustrate in that sense. This is very different from a politics forward approach. Our message is about JESUS who is the transformer of individual lives, who become world changes. As people come to Jesus and yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, cultures and politics will subsequently conform to biblical truth and values. If politics if at the forefront, then we risk loosing the core of the gospel to have an unconverted cultural Christian moralistic veneer. I challenge people to apply God's Word. Application of the Word should influence how we vote to support candidates and positions that most align with biblical truth and values. We have to be careful not to fall into the trap on the opposite end of an unbiblical approach to not call sin, SIN. That trap being treating biblical/moral issues with political implications AS political issues. This distinction helps us to stay true to the gospel, undistracted by the opposition, and relevant in our communication with a lost, broken, and deceived world. Sorry to be a downer with my first reply. I am excited about Clear Truth Media. Blessings! Jeff
Jeff.West.USA
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Back again. Private conversation with parishioners, is the appropriate context to get more specific about any political related issues, as life application is an element of discipleship. With partisan division within a church body (due to historic tendencies) a politics forward approach would provoke an emotional shut down. A biblical truth and values forward approach builds common ground and a context for the Holy Spirit to bring about conviction and change.
Sweet Foot Slim
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Jeff.West

To quote the Nobel Prize Winning poet Robert Zimmerman,
You are right from your side and I am right from mine,
We're both just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind.

I just left a church like you describe yours as being. I was on the worship team and lead worship from time to time. So I was quite plugged in. The lead minister would be happy to talk in private about issues but shared your fear about discussing current events in public. We often discussed what I found missing in his ministry but I was never able to make it clear to him; I believe because he, like you, was too caught up in the fear of being labeled a mean ole conservative. I finally left in search of a ministry that wasn't afraid to speak truth to power.

I DO NOT WANT A MINISTER TO STAND UP EVERY SUNDAY AND DISCUSS POLITICAL CANDIDATES AND TELL ME WHO TO VOTE FOR. As a Church leader and former City Councilman, I know who to vote for. But when a constitutional amendment comes up for vote in your state that makes it possible to abort babies up to the point of live birth and possibly for some time after live birth you might want to consider pointing out in a public forum that is more than a little bit Satanic. Sadly, NO ONE is pointing that out. Everyone is afraid to go on record.

All I am asking for is somewhere in our society where we might hear TRUTH. We don't hear truth from either political party. We don't hear truth from the traditional media and truth is actively suppressed on digital media. WHERE, IF NOT IN A HOUSE OF GOD, CAN WE SEEK THE TRUTH.

As an example, here are a few issues you could teach on:
A pandemic(sic) that saw the same average world wide number of deaths as any year before or after the pandemic.
The inability of a paper cloth to stop a virus.
Experimental, untested vaccines that only serve to make some of the richest oligarchs in human history richer.
The correlation between exploding vaccine use and autism.
Cutting off little boys *****es and sewing shut little girls vaginas of children far too young to know what sex is.
Abortions disproportionately occurring in minority communities.

No one is asking such issues to be your entire teaching every Sunday of the year, but to ignore these and other painful issues I believe plays into the hands of Satan. And maybe you are not called to speak truth to power. And that is fine. I still support my former church family whenever I can. But at the very least you should strongly support those who ARE called to speak truth to power; to those trying to slow the reach Satan has over popular culture.

I may be totally wrong but I have dreams about going to heaven and being asked what I did to try to stop the slaughter of innocent babies at the abortion factories. "I put up a sign saying pray to end abortion," I reply, "I didn't want to seem to be too conservative so as to turn off potential church goers."

"I gave you dominion over the earth and you expected me to do all the work," our Lord replies, "If that is the case why did I need you? Do you actually believe giving a hungry man food and a thirsty man water didn't extend to protecting a baby from the killing needle?"

Again, I could be totally wrong but as a postscript, in my little piece of the country, churches that preach Clear Truth are exploding in membership while those like my former church have static and declining memberships.
Jeff.West.USA
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I was very specific in my comment, saying "The Bible addresses values and morality THAT HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE POLITICAL REALM and IT IS APPROPRIATE TO SPEAK DIRECTLY to and illustrate in that sense. This is very different from a politics forward approach. Our message is about JESUS who is the transformer of individual lives, who become world changes.

I think that you should carefully re-read my post before you leave my church :-)

I very firmly and frequently affirm the sanctity of human life and speak of abortion as a child sacrifice to Molech and his modern secular manifestation as the god of sexual immorality. This is a CLEAR issue of biblical truth and values.

I unashamedly call the congregation to love all people and that love means to speak the truth and not accommodate the lies and delusions of the evil rise of "gender affirmation." It is not loving or kind to act like a person's "transgender identity" is a corresponds with reality.

I have and do speak out about the application of God's word to operates under government authority without compromising God's authority and how Christians should oppose the very anti-Christian "Equality Act."

There is no doubt in my congregation that marriage is between one man and one woman, that life begins a conception, that there are two sexes/genders male and female, and that we should use our voices and our vote to oppose laws and politician who are in clear opposition to biblical morality.

I wrote numerous RA's religious accommodations for military and others who did not want to take the vaccine (BTW I did not take it) however, on a divisive issue like that with no clear moral basis one. way or the other, it would have been very divisive and arrogant on my part to preach on that. What I did say, is that government mandates would be a violation of conscience of many based on biblical convictions with disputable matters.(Romans 14). I had people leave the church because I refused to encourage the congregation that they SHOULD take the vaccine.

There is no doubt that we stand on scriptural authority and are not ashamed to take a firm stand on and for the truth. We do not wink at sin to make folks happy. We preach God's love, repentance of sin, faith. in Jesus, transformation by Jesus, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, active obedience, intentional discipleship, and global missions.... and how those issues impact, with relevance, the culture in which we live. Those things may have political implications, but they are not political. If people reject our church, it should be because they choose to reject Jesus and not a perceived political partisanship. Blessings!
Sweet Foot Slim
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Jeff,
I stand corrected. I would NOT leave your church. ;-)

God bless you!
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