Pastors speaking during church services, the IRS announced, will now be able to endorse political candidates from the pulpit.
But should they?
First, Jesus was radically apolitical. For example, in John 18:36, Jesus told Pilate:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight…”
Jesus was all about the Kingdom of God. While there was nationalistic fervor in First Century Judea, Jesus avoided the traps meant to ensnare him in the politics of the day even while his own disciples expected him to imminently establish a new kingdom on earth that would overthrow Roman rule.
Can we view politics as anything but worldly, with its lust for power, self-aggrandizement, manipulation, self-serving, greed, envy, corruption, and complete self-interest? These are not Christian virtues; a clear signal Christians should steer clear of associating a ministry with any political party or politician. (Matthew 20:25-26, James 3:16, Philippians 2:3, 1 Timothy 6:10, 1 John 2:15-16, Matthew 6:24, Philippians 3:20)
Consider, to, Mark 11:15-17:
“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers.”’”
The money changers were in the Court of the Gentiles, hence the sentence, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
The market in the court distributed and interfered with the ability of Gentiles to worship God.
A pastor’s politics might be on the right or the left, but the minute we mix partisan politics with the Gospel, we are setting up a barrier to faith. The implied message is, “To accept Jesus, you must also accept our political beliefs.”
God doesn’t care about your political beliefs. He cares whether you are doing his business — justice and mercy, caring for the poor, rescuing the oppressed, ministering to the afflicted, being disciples to the truth of good news that the Kingdom of God is here now.
There’s a movement in the U.S. that started in 2016 called “exvangelicals.” This is the strongest data-driven evidence that mixing partisan politics with faith drives people away from their faith.
At least 3.4% to 5% of people who were evangelicals no longer identify as evangelical. That’s at least 11 million people, perhaps 18 million. Approximately one-third of them have seemingly abandoned faith altogether.
Why? Politics in the church is the primary driver of people leaving evangelicalism. There is no way to estimate how many people who may have considered faith found the political barrier in the U.S. too insurmountable.
Perhaps pastors should be cautious about linking faith to flawed human-created agendas. It misaligns the pulpit message with God’s priorities and runs the risk of keeping people from faith in Christ.