Why the church can't avoid politics.
A Tweet recently pointed me to an article written by John Stackhouse called: Top 10 Reasons Pastors Should Avoid Politics, July 11, 2015, www.johnstackhouse.com. I think he is deeply mistaken. I will reproduce each point and respond to each of them in turn:
10. Because no one trained you properly to get involved with politics—and a little seminar, however exciting, won’t make up for that yawning deficit. (Do you think politicians can be trained to be pastors by attending a seminar?)
My response: It is true that no one trained me to get involved in politics at the Theological College where I trained. I was trained primarily in biblical hermeneutics and Christian doctrine. These train me to think about what to means to follow Jesus in a violent world. The excellent theological training I received has convinced me that politics cannot be avoided if we do the work of Christian theology and the work of church right.
9. Because no one hired you to get involved with politics. (And if they did, they shouldn’t have: See #10.)
My Response: No one hires me - I am a pastor of a church who pays me enough money to have the freedom to be a pastor. Pastors are not hired hands.
8. Because pastors are supposed to call us toward the ideal and the ultimate, while politicians have to compromise over the real and the immediate.
My Response: This makes no sense on many levels. So a pastor from the pulpit rightly calls husbands to the ideal and the ultimate "to love our wives as Christ loves the church" but when counselling a husband in the congregation does not one agree steps that are pragmatic compromises in order to help a failing relationship. Can't we do both? We must Iive in the world as it is not only the world as it is being made. Pastors can play an almost unique role in our neighbourhoods as brokers of compromise that may point even in a small way to the ultimate reality of Jesus' Kingdom.
7. Because the Scriptures (your main area of intellectual expertise—right?) are, at best, only suggestive and regulative over the field of politics (a quite different area of intellectual expertise—right? See #10 again).
#1Response: (See response to above) NO! Jesus was and is a very real political character. We soon to enter the Christmas season - does John not understand he politics of Jesus' birth? "I follow Jesus Christ" is a political statement at the same time it is an intellectual and spiritual one. If you were to define dualism then point 7 would be it! It is a politics from the margins, of non violence and of sacrifice but it is a politics of power nevertheless.
6. Because you’ll alienate a considerable part of your constituency who see political matters differently, and will hold that difference against you, thus losing the benefits of your pastoral care and authority.
Response: I agree if this means that pastors should be careful not to be party political. I.e. publicly back one party. But the pastor may back particular policies. If we have differences - lets discuss them. Or our pastors weak and our congregations children?
5. Because you need to consider the troubling fact that you’re not alienating a considerable part of your constituency, so why is your church so uniform in its politics?
Response: Don't understand this one
4. Because governments come and go, and you need to reserve the sacred right to prophesy to whoever is in power.
Response: The church is to act as prophet - but prophecy is political in the public sphere. So pastors should be involved in politics.
3. Because politicians come and go, and you need to reserve the sacred right to comfort whoever is not, or no longer, in power.
Response: Can we disagree and still comfort? If not then lets give up being pastors!
2. Because politics brings out the worst in people, and you’re supposed to bring out the best in people.
Response A: I thought religion brought out the worst in people?
1. Because politics brings out the worst in people, and unless you’re an exception (like Tommy Douglas), politics will bring out the worst in you. Pastors, by all means think about politics and study about politics so that you can preach and call people to politics according to Biblically grounded principles and insight into the major trends of our time. But leave the actual politics to actual politicians and political scientists.
Response: This is the worst call of them all. If we leave politics to the professional politicians then we are in big trouble. Politics is for all and the church must not shy away from getting stuck in. However I add some cautionary words. I don't think church pastors should run for election to public office but we must in areas like the East End of London be part of working with others to see good happen in our neighbourhoods and beyond, Our church is member of CitizensUk. I have had six days training and more on the job to do politics in a powerful non violent way based on relationship, listening, research and compromise. May we all not just pray for God's kingdom to come but be part of it coming. For that to happen we must go beyond the realm of personal piety. And of course we only have something to say to the world if first we are the church and learn to understand conflict, and yield power properly within the church. The church must at the same time learn how to be a good 'politics' as we learn to get in involved in the more or less real world of polices outside the church community.
