"No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer." (2 Timothy 2:4)
Today was "Pulpit Freedom Sunday", a now-annual event observed by nearly 100 pastors who defiantly preached political messages from their pulpits in order to get the IRS to attempt to pull their tax exempt statuses. The thought behind this is, if the IRS makes a move, the churches will sue declaring that the restriction on churches engaging in political activities is a constitutional violation of church and state.
I have a couple of issues with this tactic. First off, there is no constitutional right to tax exemption for churches. If a church wants to be tax exempt, then they have to play by the rules. And one of those rules is, you can't engage in activities that influence political elections, whether it be to support or oppose a political candidate or ballot measure. If a church wants to play politics, let it form a Political Action Committee (PAC) and play by those rules.
The second, and larger, issue is the whole idea of using the pulpit for such a purpose. This self-serving action has no place in the church, and only diminishes the sacred office of the preacher. Christians gather in churches to hear the Word of God expounded upon, to be uplifted and encouraged, and to be equipped to do the work that God has prepared for them to do (Ephesians 2:10; 4:11-12). Not to listen to the preacher's opinion of who they should vote for or what ballot measures they should support. What a wasted opportunity on the part of these pastors. Who knows but that today was the day that the Holy Spirit prompted unsaved men and women to attend some of these churches, only to hear a political message instead of the message of salvation?
Having preached hundreds of sermons over the years, I can tell you that there was never a time when I stepped behind the pulpit that I did not feel the full weight of this awesome responsibility to convey the truth of God's Word to my congregation in such a way that would not only honor God, but be of great spiritual benefit to the listeners. To do any less would be to treat the pulpit with disdain and contempt. These defiant pastors have missed the mark and will have to give an account to the Lord for why they engaged in such futile and distracting activities instead of carrying out the sacred duties of their office.
This is just one more reason why the Christian Church in America needs to get back to the business of preaching and teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. For too long now, the American Church has been distracted by engaging in the political arena. Countless throngs have been disenchanted and disenfranchised by the seeming irrelevance of the Church, largely in part because of these un-Biblical activities. How many more souls will be lost because of misguided preachers who insist on pushing their own agendas instead of the one that Jesus gave us before he ascended into Heaven?
