I recently heard someone say that the following six things matter more than anything else right now:
- Parents’ rights
- Medical freedom
- Secure borders
- Election integrity
- Energy independence
- Freedom of speech on the internet
Which of these is a spiritual issue, and which of them is not? Which ones matter to Christians because we are Christians, and which ones are only matters of the left hand kingdom? Is the Church supposed to speak to the left hand kingdom, or only the kingdom of the right? Does rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel mean only talking about the Law as that which accuses you, or does it include preaching the Law as the Law that all people are to keep? Does loving your neighbor stop when it involves politics, or is politics the very place where you are commanded to love your neighbor?
Getting called out as being a poor pastor because my Twitter feed has “politics” in it has really irked me. Some of this is my pride no doubt. But more of it is my concern for the apathetic spirit which has infested so many both in and outside the church. When someone says to me, “I’m worried about your faith,” because I think sexual immorality and theft are wrong, then, one way or another, we have lost some serious perspective.
It is true that US government oil leases are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Scriptures. But caring for the poor is. As the Speaker of the House invokes the name of Jesus to justify laundering billions of dollars over seas, as inflation hits rates that are costing the average household more than $300 a month, as Johns Hopkins hires an advocate for “minor attracted persons” to head up its Moore Center for the protection of children from sexual child abuse, as the removal of Title 42 is going to add to the 1 million impoverished unregistered people flooding into the country, as 2000 Mules outsells Spider Man on Amazon, as child hepatitis and aggressive cancers baffle doctors all over, my question for you is, “Why aren’t more pastors talking about these issues?”
What does our mutually assured silence mean? How can we feed the poor when we won’t admit they exist? How can we pray for a government that acts only in the shadows? How can we avoid profiteering on the unborn when they won’t tell us the truth about it?
How can anyone of integrity stand by and do nothing, much less complain about the desire for open dialogue on how we Christians are going to handle the fallout in our back yards?
Make no mistake: those six issues will impact your congregation over the next five years. They will change the way our lives together in this country operate. You don’t have to agree with my answers. But you do need to have your own opinion, and your congregation will be a better place if you are allowed to share it.
Silencing dissent is the sure path to heresy. You cannot rightly distinguish something from the Gospel if you’re not allowed to talk about it.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
The Mad Christian