Religious leaders cannot avoid being political any more than they can avoid being human. “Man is by nature a political animal,” Aristotle once said. In Aristotelian philosophy, to turn one’s back on politics is to become the “tribeless, lawless, heartless one” akin to a bird which flies alone.
To be political simply means to care about how the nation is governed and how the governors treat the governed, especially the ones Jesus called “the least of these.”
Pastors, preachers, apostles, prophets and priests have a divine duty of care towards the vulnerable and marginalized in society. For this reason, the political is inescapable.
But while church leaders should be political, they should not be partisan. Partisan politics is divisive and always end up bleeding over into church pews occupied by people for whom Christ bled and died.
Our Lord’s very last prayer on earth was “that they all shall be one, just as you, my Father, are in me, and I am in you, so that they also shall be one in us.” The Son of God paid too high a price for Church unity for His ministers to even contemplate fanning the flames that divide the Body of Christ.
Church leaders add fire to the fuel of political polarization when they become echo chambers of political parties and/or political candidates.
This kind of over-involvement in politics by spiritual leaders is a huge turn-off for those who come through our church doors seeking the salvation of their souls. They want to hear a true man of God from behind the pulpit, not a pawn in the hip pocket of a politician.
Indeed, when folk walk through our church doors at 11AM on Sunday, they are not coming to enquire where the Church leader stands politically, but where they stand salvifically.
When we, as their spiritual leaders, care more for our partisan ideology, than for sound Biblical theology, we hurt the very cause for which the Son of Man gave His life. And for this each one of us leaders will give an account to God both in this world and in the world to come.
No one gets away with this type of spiritually egregious behavior.
Our churches are not politically and culturally homogenous. They should not be. The net of the Gospel catches fish of every size, shape and color. Therefore, we expect our Churches to be comprised of people who think different, see different and vote different.
That’s because we are are created different and unique. And so when the Church leader openly identifies with a political party and openly endorses or stumps for a political candidate, they alienate a part of the congregation that doesn’t agree with their spiritual leader’s choice.
The church thus become a potential war zone, and the pastor might have to show up on Sunday wearing a bulletproof vest. This is not the Church that Jesus Christ bed and died for.
Instead, the Church should be a place where people of all political stripes and colors worship together, held by a common bond and band of agape love. They may differ politically, but the Blood of Jesus is thicker than the water of the womb of any political party.
Noone should worship with a lingering fear that their own political choices may be frowned upon or even condemned by their pastor, prophet or priest. Church members who support the ruling or governing party should be just as comfortable in their Church, and under their pastor, as Church members who support the opposition.
The same for Church members who support the opposition: they should be just as comfortable as those who support the ruling or governing party. It is the Church leader’s responsibility to facilitate and foster this dynamic.
But f the Church leader’s version of the Gospel does not include loving thy political rivals, then it’s a false gospel. That leader is a heretic, and folk ought to hightail it out of that Church and abandon the cleric to his own evil devices. If they have any spiritual sense.
The Church leader who fails to understand that their political party is not their primary identity is dangerous and deleterious to the mission of the Church on earth, namely, to win the lost at any cost.
Such a church leader does not understand that the Church is an embassy of the Kingdom of God planted in the midst of the kingdom of darkness, and very Church member an ambassador of Christ, sent on earth to represent, not a political party or system, but the Kingdom of God. Such a leader is not worthy of the high calling of God because he fails to understand this: he is not a political party member who happens to be a member of the Body of Christ, but that he is a member of the Body of Christ who happens to be a part of some political organization.
And whatever ideals and agenda that the party holds, the man of God must hold those ideals lightly, not tightly. They are not salvific. Political parties or candidates are not called to save nations: they are called to serve them.
All political parties and candidates are fallen, sinful and in need of repentance and cleansing by the Blood of the Lamb of God. It behooves everyone of them to therefore walk in absolute humility not hubris.
The man of God must never be identified by their political allegiance to the kingdoms of this world, nor allow their identity to be shaped by party politics. We are in the world, but we are not of this world.
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