Ok ladies. My dh asked me to pose you with this question/opinion poll. He has a pastor friend that has been approached to run for house of representatives back in MS (won't mention party to keep it neutral). He is seriously entertaining it and asked dh what he thought.
What would be your answer if asked the same question. Can or should ministers, especially pastors be actively involved in politics?
I believe a "minister" can be, (effectively) but a pastor, no, in my opinion. I don't even think a pastor can really effectively be a pastor AND an evangelist, missionary, etc. at the same time. You are either a pastor or you are not. A pastor shepherd's a flock, they dont run off and do something else with the majority of their time.
But I believe politics may be someone's FT ministry.
I'd think it would also be difficult to be a pastor of a church running for office because of the legal ramifications....if he was still the pastor while he was running, wouldn't he sort of be endorsing a candidate from the pulpit by default?
A pastor of a megachurch in Minneapolis is being investigated by the IRS just for saying that he planned to vote for a specific candidate (not telling the congregation that they should vote for her...just that he planned to do so!).
Lest we say that this is the liberal society attacking Christian conservatives, there are also liberal mainline churches under investigation for endorsing left-wing candidates!
Personally, I feel very uncomfortable in "political" churches. I believe that we definitely need to encourage and remind our congregations to vote - but I'm in the ministry to win souls for Christ, and I would rather be known as a woman of character - as someone who loves Jesus with all her heart - not as a poster-child for a specific political party!!
I can only say that Floyd Flake has one of the largest and most efficient ministries in Queens, NY and he was a congressman for a number of years... He left congress to become the President of Wilberforce University and is still there now... It all requires that you have an efficient and well trained staff...
I guess for me it is a no brainer - we are heavily involved in community development and therefore are active even in the political arena - Our ministry is strong in the area of Social Justice, so politics so often comes to our front door. My beloved was the VP of the local NAACP, and when John Edwards ran for President, my husband was an integral part of the local steering committee... In the Black Church tradition, it is political suicide for a politician to not come to the Black church if he wants the Black vote, so it does not surprise me that leadership would spring from within the church ranks... Apparently this local pastor is already active in the community, no doubt he has programming to help the disenfranchised, and if he has received grants to do it, then he is already non-discriminatory in his service delivery, so he is already seeing all kinds of people walking through his doors... I can only assume that because to be considered for National office requires that you have appeal beyond the four walls of your church. As it is with anything else, however, if you are working on one thing, all else gets put on the backburner... The only way to maintain a healthy congregation when you have other things going on would be to have help...
But for that matter being a Congressman for your side job is no different than being a teacher as a side job, bi-vocational is a difficult thing for a serious pastor... Because when you have to be at your day job then the Pastor part of you gets set aside.
I am not saying that it is optimal to Pastor and have another job, as a matter of fact I can point to several times in our ministry that we found that the second job was hazardous to our ministry, but I am saying that sometimes the Lord wants to take you to a larger scale, and we have to be careful that we do not poo-poo our destiny. You say you want to impact the entire country, well you may be hard pressed to do it solely within the four walls of your church, but if God has opened the door for you to be a national stage, walk in it...
My church is involved in an organization called Catalyst - a newly formed group in our county (it may already be in place in other areas, but it is new to us!), which is all about the churches in the community getting together and improving our communities. The slogan is "One Church - many locations." Christian churches...our local mosque is not involved, lol!
I am absolutely thrilled and excited to be in a church that is so behind this - my SP is one of our district leaders! DH and I tried and tried to get the churches in our last community together to help the community, but we only succeeded in a Halloween outreach.
So....in the area of community development...social justice...and all that that encompasses, then absolutely!! I believe that the churches can and should be involved beyond the four walls of their church. And sometimes politics are necessarily involved...
What I don't like is going to a church that is overly (and please don't think I'm slamming anyone - I know that politics can be a sensitive topic!) "Republican." Don't get me wrong - I'm conservative when it comes to moral issues (gay marriage, abortion, etc). But I also believe that if we're going to flap our jaws, then we also need to be proactive. If a church is going to be known in the community for its stand against abortion, then my feeling is that they had better also be known as a church that helps out crisis pregnancy centers...supports single moms...provides referrals to post-abortion counseling.
So when I say "political church," I don't mean one that is actually active politically and socially. I mean one where they all come together once a week and pat themselves on the back for voting for whatever party is "the" party for their congregation.
During my years in the US Senate and Congress, I met many good men and women of God, however, I am not sure that either job could be done part time, at least, not well....but, I do know that there are several state positions, like local rep., state senator, etc., where you can both have a huge impact for God in your state, and still have a full time job...such as a pastor. ( This is because you would only be meeting and voting during the very short "session" and your chief of staff runs your office the rest of the year. Session is usually just a few months long in most states. It would also depend on your distance to and from the capitol. I just do not see how you can Pastor and be a US congressman both at the same time. Best, Lori
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...... Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I never said anything. And then, they came for ME, and there was no one left to speak up. Martin Neimoller, German Pastor, WW2
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