ALL THE TIME.
If religion and politics matter then they must intersect and be interwoven otherwise neither matter or lead to change.
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Churches should not be tax-exempt and they ought to be free to endorse any candidate or issue they choose. Now, if your community of faith publicly advocates for a candidate or issue, you ought to be able to expect the leadership to make a persuasive, Al: Biblical defense of the basis for that support. Using President Clinton to illustrate a point about adultery might be considered partisan, but that is not politics, it is simply using a politician for an example. Preaching in favor of legislation seeking to implement the death penalty for adultery would be politics. And Eric: Comparisons between OT Israel (a theocracy) and modern America (a dying democracy) are tricky at best. Tough to draw dependable parallels where the relationships between the governmental and religious authorities are so radically different.
Mark,
Tricky? I don’t think so at all from my reading. I’m not talking about establishing a theocracy, but speaking to the issues of justice, righteousness and mercy that are perfectly applicable to all modern policy matters with cultural clarity applied.
Yes, tricky. I’m all about speaking to issues of justice, righteousness, and mercy. But, the tricky part turns on the opening comment above about tax-exempt status and how that impacts preaching and teaching from modern American pulpits. We can strenuously advocate that pastors should be so bold, but the reality is that the tax-exempt status does mute many leaders of communities of faith.
I never have a hard time steering away from people and focusing on policies, principles and programs. The underlying values that lead to various policies are free game for teaching. Tax exempt guidelines are easy to follow if you don’t see the church as an arm to some political party.