Putting Churches in "Neutral" on Politics

Putting Churches in "Neutral" on Politics

Click the link to listen to a commentary by S. Pearl Sharp about the IRS going after a church in Pasadena that appeared to take sides during the last elections.
My own feelings are kind of mixed on how churches should preach when it comes to politics. Neither party has it all together, and both are evil and good at the same time. God would not vote for either party, he would not endorse either party. We need to stop trying to put God into a box designed by man and instead try to find out what he wants us to do. Check out this scripture:

"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked
up and saw a man standing in front of him with a
drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him
and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"
"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army
of the LORD I have now come."
Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence,
and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for
his servant?" ~Josh 5:13-14(NIV)

I remember hearing our president say, "He who is not with us is against us."
I always found that troubling. Now I know why. Sure, we have to appear strong during a war situation, but I have been in churches where it was assumed that if you were a Christian, you must be a Republican. I have seen patriotic services where Republican and Christian are seen as the same thing, and if you weren't, you were misguided and stupid at best, and un-American at worst.

We need to speak the truth in our churches about the hot button issues, we need to say what the word says about them, but we need to speak about all the issues, not just gay marriage and abortion. Minimum wage, welfare, poverty, education, immigration-these issue should not be swept under the rug. If we are going to do one, we should do the other.

Then again, maybe we should seek no political agenda in our church and seek God's agenda. If we seek his truth, we will feed the hungry, take care of the poor, invite the strangers(even immigrants?) in, and politics will take care of itself as something that is a matter of conscience and not a matter of grass-roots activism under our steeples.

Thanks for reading,

AC

Proverbs 14:23

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."

Now here's a scripture that conservatives can get behind. There's no way to misinterpret it, or twist it around. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God told them that hard work would be part of the Curse of Original of Sin,

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you
will return."~ Genesis 3:19

In the New Testament, we find a very similar verse that goes even further,

"He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need."~Ephesians 4:28

This verse really brings home some other ideas about the nature of work. Work is not simply a method to fill your belly, it is what makes you a blessing to those around you. It is the way that you make the world a better place. You work, in order that you are not a burden to those around you, and so that you are able to help others, so they can become like you.

Work is meant to reproduce good in the world.

More and more, I suspect that charity based on the bible is meant to be spread like a virus. Each person is meant to work and in turn tithe to the church and take care of his family and friends, the church is meant to take care of the community at large, and the community at large is meant to be a blessing to the country, our country is meant to be a blessing to those in the world.

Instead, we have Christians that look to the government to take care of the poor and get annoyed when they hear the local pastor talk about money. Even if you don't believe in the tithe,(which I do), we can all agree that if we all gave a regular percentage of our income to the church, there would be less need for government programs that are so unwieldy they have a hard time being effective locally.

Thanks for reading,

AC

Proverbs 14:20

"The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends"

Some proverbs seem to just be explanations of the way the world works, and point us towards why its wrong. Looking at this in a purely North American viewpoint, many of us can understand it readily. In many of us there is a fear to get involved with people that will be "too needy". Whether it is emotionally, socially, or financially, no one wants a friend that only "takes and takes without giving".

I've heard these sorts of sayings since I was a kid. Maybe its because we think that friends should be able to take care of themselves and our relationships will only be for mutual emotional support, and that helping them in more substantial ways, such as with finances, is something that will almost never happen.

This kind of friendship is not true friendship. It is a deep aquaintanceship. Only being friends with those that are in our same socio-economic group, with those that will never truly need our help is not real friendship.

Yes, friendship is meant to be a two-way street, but we have to be willing to get our hands dirty sometime if we want to be part of making the world a better place.

Thanks for reading,

AC