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