Pulpit Freedom Sunday? But we don’t have a pulpit…
So, apparently this Sunday is “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” At first, I thought that meant more churches were going to set aside the “pulpit” and allow more brothers and sisters in Christ to share Christ and the Scriptures with one another.
But, that’s not what it means.
Instead, it has something to do with American politics, and who will pretend to run (while actually being run over) by this country for the next four years.
To be honest… I’m not interested. Yes, I know that many of my readers are political and have strong opinions about this candidate or that candidate. (And, hey, I even watched the debate last week… well, I listened to most of it.)
I think I’ll just share what Keith said (over at “subversive1“) in his post “Pulpit Freedom Sunday?“:
In fact, the irony is that our church family has nothing to fear from the occasional hour-long Sunday morning conversation about politics and the election. But we choose not to waste our time on things like this.
Instead, we’ve made a conscious decision to focus all our time, energy and passion on Jesus. When we get together on Sunday morning, or on Thursday evening, we could easily and freely converse about the candidates, argue over the issues, expound on the merits (or lack thereof) of political parties or campaigns, but why would we do that when Jesus is sitting right in our midst?
We want to hear Jesus speak to us, and surprisingly He seems more concerned about our lack of love for one another, or our need to forgive, or the importance of spending time with Him in prayer, or the hardness of our hearts towards the poor.
So, this Sunday, while hundreds (maybe thousands) of Christian churches around the nation will be hearing sermons about why they should vote for the Republican candidate, or why God wants them to re-elect the incumbent Democrat, we’ll be doing our best to hold hands, knit our hearts together in love, and submit ourselves as fully to Christ as possible so that we can hear His voice and be changed into the people He wants to make us into.
We don’t have sermons, so I know that we won’t have a sermon about politics this Sunday.
But, you know what’s funny… since no one “runs the show” when we gather together, and since people are free to share with one another while we meet, it’s very possible that someone will choose to say something about politics. But, I’ll be surprised if they do.
You see, while several of my brothers and sisters care deeply about politics and the government and America, they care more about what God is saying to us as we follow him together and how we can build up one another in Jesus Christ. And, that rarely seems to be about politics.
I am pulpit free every Sunday 🙂
Alan,
Indeed, after much study and prayer, I cannot see in 1 Corinthians 14:26 where our Father encourages us to speak of man’s politics one way or the other.
We shall ever have mere men seeking to govern us until the time that our Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom once and for all. Consider: Even with living under the most brutal of ‘political regimes’, that being The Roman Empire, (wherein Jesus Himself could have been killed on the streets for no reason at all and no one could have done anything about it, because it’s not like Jews had a place of appeal with The Roman Empire), Jesus said one thing I can think of off the top of my head regarding said Roman empirical governance: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
Obama, Romney. One is Caesar, one wants to be Caesar. *shrugs* The only Christian aspect I really use as my measuring rod against men who would seek to govern me this side of Heaven is the pro-Life one. A pro-abortion politician will never get my vote. I simply do not want innocent blood upon my hands. Everything else is just details to me when it comes to secular politics.
I can’t find in the bible anything about voting. I can however, find where it says to trust in the Almighty. Gideon and his 300 trusted God. They did not vote about the task at hand.
I was right… no one talked about politics yesterday.
-Alan
This is exactly my point in LIFE,LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF WORDLINESS, the book I am trying to write. The blurring of the Christian gospel message with politics is a bigger problem than just a “Pulpit Free” Sunday. Looking for a publisher if anyone has any suggestions!
Mike,
Look into Energion Publications. I don’t have any connections there, but I always enjoy talking with Henry.
-Alan
Thanks for the suggestion,Alan. I will look into Energion.