Transcription
Politics and the pulpit. We're coming close to November, and we've got to talk about it. And I remember when Jimmy Carter was going to save the country; a lot of Christians thought, "Yeah, we finally got a Christian in the White House." And that's the issue we're going to talk about: politics and this hard issue—connections in the pulpit. I'm with Newt Larson, with Jeff Bog, and Jim Brown, and we're glad—these are my two sons by previous marriage. Thank you for coming. What about it? How do—let's start with a specific—how do you pray from the pulpit about politics or the situation or the country?
I think first, for me foremost, is before I pray and even sitting there today, knowing a little what the Bible says: "The heart of the king is in the hand of God, and He moves it wherever He chooses." So knowing that, somehow, no matter who is in the president's office or your governor, whomever it is, knowing that God is in complete control, and my responsibility is to pray for them. So I—I pray for them. I pray for wisdom. I pray for strength. I pray that they would lead in a way that it would draw people to God.
So you're gonna pray for who's running or the leader where we are, cut two months ahead? Well, even now, I'm praying that for the person that is running, and I'm praying for the person who's in the spot. So I—I don't delineate one way or another. So I just—I pray for both, for both.
Yeah, I would say I—we pray; we also pray for the leader. I asked—so I would—I would agree with everything Jim said and then add to the idea that that we often pray for a kind of voter. So I want—my biggest heartbeat is that when followers of Christ go into the voting booth, they go in as a follower of Christ, not as a Republican or Democrat. And no matter what, your kind of—your kind of picking a poison, right? So the—the president isn't—or the candidates are going to line up exactly with where the scripture says, no matter what. But you're looking at the issues, and you're looking and saying, "Let the—let the voters themselves be higher than a particular hot-button issue" that may be a part of them. And so we pray for that a lot and then pray for the president, leader, just like Jim was saying—that's what the scripture commands us to do. We need to do it—not pray against them, no, pray for them. And I think Nero was one of the leaders they were told to pray for.
Ya, it was not an evangelical. No, not at all, was he? Right before Carter, what do you do when people say, "Why don't we take a stand?" And—and even most of the voters' guides are clearly as bent toward one direction. What—how do we say—how do we answer, "Why don't we take a stand on these issues or on a candidate?"
I would agree: take—take a stand on issues that are biblical issues, right? So don't politicize moral issues and don't moralize political ones. That—and then it's a big deal. So there are—there are certain issues: abortion, marriage, life issues—those are—there's nothing political about those things; they're clear in the scripture, and we need to take clear—clear stands. Then you get into taxes and gun control and those types of things, and those are preferences, and people can vote how they want to vote with it. So we do take stands on the issues that the scripture takes a stand on. That's the job of the pulpit—that to proclaim the scripture, not to push the politicians.
I wouldn't think to—I'd get to be careful, faster's is when we do pray that we don't put a paragraph and build this case and say all the things about this person in a negative way, all the reasons why we stand on what we believe the Bible says. We pray—I'm a firm believer—a—what scripture says: "If any time you're praying, just pray as if you're reading through the Bible instead of you're suggesting or adding all these other things to your prayers." Pray what the Word of God says, and there's—there's ways He teaches us how to pray in His word. And don't use your prayer—your pulpit prayer—your hobbyhorse, by specifically pointing out things. Or all of us have been in circles in prayer meetings where they were—someone tells you the whole story about this person as if God doesn't already know that. But pray specifically what scripture says. I heard a critique—a whole worship service—but the prayer, when it—when he was done with the prayer, I would have—if I were an Obama fan, I would have walked out. I guess I wouldn't have walked out, but it was so clearly against the president.
We deal with higher issues is a good way to say it. First Corinthians, Paul says, "This is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ, and then those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed." He's not revealed who we should vote for, but the mysteries of Christ and who He is. You know—a new—I would agree with that. And another thing I would say is show some respect to the person in office, even the way you address them. We can even say in a degrading way, speak about someone by—nitrous—there are present—though the president it were—given reference to—the pray for the president, address him as the President. And I think so—show respect for his place. There are churches where you wouldn't feel at home if you were a Democrat, right? And we need to be careful—I'm sure it's the other way too, but in my circles it would be that way.
Should we comment on in this candidacy time on mean spirits or the way they go at it, or is that just a smile kind of thing?
I—I don't, because I don't defend or elevate any politician from the pulpit, right? So I want to elevate and defend, so to say, Christ from the pool. But I think people are smart enough to know they're going—they're going to like who they like, and they're going to vote for who they vote for. What—when I want to press our folks on is most of the time they vote against someone, not for someone. And we can look and say, "Well, if they gave us a better candidate," and all that kind of—of stuff. And I want to go back to that idea of what does the scripture say, and then is—Ken—that candidate—which one's going to get as closest to the—the truth of Scripture? And you kind of have to choose to do that every single time. That the church has put its credibility on the line for a candidate—that candidate, one way to another, has let the church down. And we've wasted that—the moral authority of the church by getting behind a flawed human being and elevating them as if they're going to be the savior of something. So you—you kind of—I feel like you kind of have to pull back and put our—let's put our authority or behind God, so to say—our credibility behind God—and then let—let the people do what they're going to do. But let's—let's proclaim the truth of who Christ is and how that shows up in the cultural issues over day—nothing about winning the world by elections. Yeah, and look at—look within it—we are much closer to how the New Testament in our culture now—latest statistics say seven at ten percent are evangelical—no moral majority anymore.
Well, I hope we raised a couple issues that you think about. I'm Newt Larson with Jim Brown and Jeff Bog and Pastor P.D.—politics in the pulpit. Thank you.