USING THE CHURCH FOR PARTISAN POLITICS: PASTORS AND POLITICIANS, BEWARE
What really happens when religion and politics mix? It is not the mixing of religion with politics that is problem but the proper application of each within contemporary contexts by practitioners that create problems. For there is politics in religion and religion in politics. Pastors and leaders of Christian bodies getting involved in extreme politicking and using Church pulpits to endorse candidates or political parties have cause image/integrity and reproach to the body of Christ thereby impeding the impact of the kingdom of God on earth. Many churches, marriages of pastors and many have backslidden as result. In some cases erstwhile friends have become foes. Unhealthy rivalry has become the order of the day because pastors want to outwit one another to get politicians and leaders of government over to their side. Politicians and officials of government have realized the electoral value of the church dictum politics is game of number are falling over to get these religious bodies and pastors/prophets to endorse them. This problem is all over wherever the church or Christians become partisan in their activities. Take for instance, United State of America, the problem have made Congress to make series of amendment to their Constitution and electoral laws in an effort to separate state and religion. In spite of the various laws the Church in American is still victim to this crisis that has bedeviled the Church.
Hear the view of Tony Campolo, Founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education on this: “Those on the political left have been appalled as the Christian Coalition passed out, in Evangelical churches, millions of voter guides that lent obvious endorsements to candidates of the Republican Party. During this last election, there was further outrage among liberal Democrats when members of the Evangelical clergy organized to overtly promote the election of Republicans to Congress. There were cries of protest from those on the left who claimed that such partisan politics violated the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. However the courts finally interpret the first amendment of the Constitution, there is little question that endorsing parties or candidates from the pulpit violates our election laws? To do so should lead to those churches losing their tax-exempt status. But what my friends on the political left fail to acknowledge is that the same kind of violations have been going on for years in African-American churches from one end of this country to the other. Every election season, Democratic candidates file into African-American churches and are introduced to the congregations of these churches as friends of the pastors. And, even if the pastors of these churches never officially endorse these candidates, everyone knows what is going on. But it is not only African-American churches that are guilty of such openly partisan politics. There are white churches which are getting caught up in the same sort of practices. I personally know of a church where most of the members are anti-Bush, which during a worship service invited members to sign a petition demanding his resignation.”
“It is time for all of us to call upon the Election Commission to take action and put an end to any kind of partisan politics by churches, mosques, or synagogues. And it is time for us to name the hypocrisy of the Left in complaining about how the Religious Right is violating the first amendment while turning a blind eye to their own candidates' use of churches as places to campaign. The time to act is now, because there is mounting pressure to get Congress to change the law so that campaigning and fundraising in religious communities be made legal. A strong case can be made for religious leaders to speak out on political issues. No one wants to deny pro-life congregations, such as Roman Catholic churches and the majority of Evangelical churches, the right to have sermons on the sanctity of life. All of those who follow the teachings of the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and the Koran, have a responsibility to articulate in houses of worship what these sacred scriptures have to say about our responsibility to the poor--both individually and as a nation. To live out their prophetic responsibilities, it is essential for members of the clergy to decry the outrageous happenings in such places as Darfur, and even to explain what they believe God is leading them to say about the war in Iraq. But when the clergy start telling their members how to vote or putting out voter guides that overtly make one political party the incarnation of evil and the other the "God" party, something has gone wrong in the land. Such clergy members and their churches should be made to suffer the consequences of such actions”
How would you feel mixing religion with politics? Hear some views from other places: “So what of team Jesus? Well, according to a post-election survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, white evangelical Christians were the largest bloc of voters in 2010, totaling 30 percent of those who pulled the lever. Predictably, they broke for Republicans by a count of nearly 4-1. This providing the GOP with exaggerated results in the South and Midwest. Ralph Reed, founder and Chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition i.e. praise baby Jesus, said: “People of faith turned out in the highest numbers in a midterm election we have ever seen. And they made an invaluable contribution to the historic results, including the election of a Republican majority in the House and significant gains in U.S. Senate seats, governorships, and hundreds of state legislative seats and local offices.” It’s even more concerning when a former U.S President, Jimmy Carter, who also happens to be a Baptist preacher and was never shy to evangelize the gospel to foreign leaders, steps forward to comment on the growing influence of his beloved Christ in U.S politics: “There is now an excessive melding of religion and politics. It began with the Southern Baptist Convention and it’s now metastasized to other religions, where an actual affiliation between the denomination and the more conservative elements of the Republican Party is almost official. There are pastors openly calling for members to vote a certain way. That’s a serious breakdown in the principle of separation of church and state.”
On “Political Speech and the Churches”: “The so-called "Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act" (H.R. 2357) has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. It would allow religious groups to use up to 20% of their budgets for partisan political activities. The bill was drafted by Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice. It's also supported by other leaders of the Religious Right, including Jerry Farwell, D. James Kennedy, James Dobson, and Tim LaHaye. It quickly attracted 116 cosponsors in the House. But most religious organizations have come out against the bill. Among them are the National Council of Churches, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Islamic Supreme Council of America, and Soka Gakkai International (a Buddhist association). Those groups recognize that the Religious Right is using distortions and scare-tactics to promote the bill. They also realize the bill's enactment would harm both religion and government.
The Religious Right claims that passage of the bill is necessary to allow churches the right to speak on moral, social, and political issues without fear of losing their tax exemption. The hyperbolic Kennedy is touting the bill with fliers depicting ministers as gagged and the IRS as shuttering their churches. But under the current law, churches are free to speak on moral, social, and political issues. Anyone who watches television or reads newspapers knows they often do. And the example of Martin Luther King Jr. shows that addressing these issues with moral suasion can be more effective than political power-brokering. What the law forbids churches from doing is endorsing or opposing candidates, and using church resources for political purposes. Churches are given tax-exempt status because they are expected to do charitable work, not engage in partisan politicking. If a church wants to endorse candidates or otherwise become involved in partisan politics, it's free to do so. All it has to do is give up its tax exemption and form a political committee, the same as other organizations. (A few religious groups have gone this route.) Also under the present law, ministers and church members can participate in partisan politics.
They simply have to do so in their individual capacities, and not by representing a church or using church property or auspices. And churches may perform neutral civic functions in connection with partisan political campaigns. These include sponsoring debates between candidates, conducting voter registration drives, and arranging rides to the polls for voters. The Religious Right complains that the current law has been enforced arbitrarily against conservative churches. But in 1988, when presidential candidate Jesse Jackson announced he would raise campaign funds in churches during Sunday services, he was forced to abandon the idea after objections were raised that he would be violating federal law.”
“And in 2000, the IRS visited a minister in New York City after receiving complaints that he had endorsed Al Gore from the pulpit. The agency reminded him of the law and asked that he sign a statement promising to abide by it. He signed. It's true that a church lost its tax-exempt status after running a full-page newspaper ad against Bill Clinton in 1992. The ad proclaimed that voting for Clinton was a "sin." The purpose of this flagrant violation was probably to test whether the IRS would enforce the law against churches. The agency did. And the church lost its appeal in court. If the bill is enacted, politically active churches would become conduits for campaign contributions. The money would be sent to churches to take advantage of their tax-exempt status, and the churches would then pass the funds along to support candidates. Such schemes are attractive to leaders of the Religious Right, who despise church-state separation and seem more interested in politics than religion. But because churches don't have a duty to disclose contributions the way PACs and candidates do, this practice would wreak havoc on the campaign finance laws. Moreover, the need to decide political matters could divide and weaken congregations.
They would have to determine whether their church should become involved in politics. If a decision is made to do so, they would then have to choose which candidates and parties to endorse, how much support to provide, and what form it should take. Most church members were brought together because of agreement on religious or philosophical views, not political ideology. As a result, a church's membership normally consists of persons from a variety of political parties and philosophies. The need to make decisions on political issues would splinter some churches. Religious involvement in politics could also set the churches against each other and against other segments of society. It's chilling to envision people running for office as Baptist-backed candidates, Catholic-backed candidates, etc. Similar religious divisions have torn societies apart in disputes over whose religion would govern the country. Some ministers oppose the bill because they think the time and energy spent on political matters would detract attention from the true purposes of religion. They see this as a violation of Christ's commandment to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mark 12:17) Additionally, political campaigns are often vicious, win-at-all-costs battles in which truth, ethics, and civility are among the casualties.
There's a danger that if churches become involved in partisan politics, they will lose dignity and respect in the eyes of the public. When the mud starts flying in the political arena, some of it will land on politically active churches. Further, it's not in the best interest of religion for the government to transform ministers into political bosses, and churches into PACs and money-laundering operations for politicians. Religion should strive to be above those levels. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org), testified against the bill before a congressional subcommittee. He said it "would scrap a time-tested system and substitute a reckless experiment in mixing religion and partisan politics." Lynn, who is also a United Church of Christ minister, predicted the result would be "the corruption of the church and the political process." Keeping church and state separate is the sensible and mutually beneficial course on this issue.
From Zambia come these comments: “THE House of Chiefs has advised some biased clerics to be objective and stop engaging in partisan politics and misleading people. Chairperson of the House of Chiefs, Chief Madzimawe said some clerics had gone astray and were misleading people by ignoring their roles as Christian leaders. Chief Madzimawe of the Ngoni people of Chipata District in Eastern Province said in an interview yesterday that it was clear that some clerics had forgotten about their role of promoting reconciliation, unity and peace in the country, but were now actively sowing a seed of hatred and disunity. He warned that clerics that were partisan and actively sowing a seed of hatred and disunity in the country would be held responsible for their actions, if they set the country ablaze because of their selfish ambitions. “Partisan politics are not encouraged in Church because within the Church, there are people who belong to different political parties, but it is sad to find that some clergymen are busy sowing a seed of hatred, disunity and enmity within the church by preaching partisan politics. “To say the truth, the stance taken by some of these clergymen to engage in partisan politics is dangerous and can set the country ablaze. This is why they need to be reminded that they should go back to the drawing board and look at the guidelines that guide them so that they know the dos and don’ts,” Chief Madzimawe said.
Chief Madzimawe urged Zambians to ignore both clergymen and politicians trying to create division in the country because Zambia has always enjoyed peace, harmony and unity since independence. He said Zambians should not allow any body to disturb the peace that the country had been enjoying from independence because peace was a pre-requisite for achieving economic recovery and national development. Chief Madzimawe also cautioned Zambians to be wary of the emerging politics of tribalism and regionalism because it could divide the nation. In this era of political instability and political induced violence, there is also proliferation of praying groups with political undertone. Is like every politician or elected Government officer take pleasure to raise such group. And many Christian leaders are mobilizing prayer support groups for politicians and governments. Good, but my quarrel is the motive and the practice of using these prayer groups to curry favour and seek attention of politicians and Government. The abuse is that these prayer groups have politicize prayers that it is more of publicity and praise singing of Government and politicians in the media than agonizing in prayer for violent free state and prosperity of our people. Priest Pastors and prophets helped ministers to enthrone rulers in the Bible but were never running around rulers/government officers for attention. If Christian leaders conduct themselves very well these politicians and rulers would seek for our counsel and prayers to rule well without unduly advertising ourselves to them. We should not lower the dignity of our calling and offices because we need government help to do ministry work.
Let us learn from history as recorded by Joel C. Hunter in “Prayer, Politics & Power” of what happened in America about Christian’s involvement in politics. “God used political leadership for people who were given His law. It was appropriate for Israel’s maturing process, just as rules and parental force are appropriate for your children. The Scripture clearly states, though that God was preparing them for another form of government … (see Jer. 31: 31, 33). The New Testament does speak to the issue of Christians and government. We are to respect the external government, “let everyone be in subjection to the governing authorities” (Rom. 13: 1). We are to cooperate and give our civil duty its due: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Mark 12: 17). We are to do such to aid our witness, our influence for Christ. First Peter 2: 12-17 is quite clear about our obeying government so that others will see no wrong and “glorify God”. But there is no implication in the New Testament that political reform, be a major part of our Christian strategy to share Christ with the world” “There was a time when strong political leadership was appropriate in the journey of God’s people. However, we cannot justifiably transfer that method of operation to the present, the New Testament calls us to grow up in our political style… the point to be made here is that it is not any great leader’s responsibility to solve the Christians’ problems.
Though leaders were appointed for order in the Church (I Tim. 3), no passage in the New Testament encourages Christians to appoint for themselves a political leader. The leader Christ gives to us to help us speak our cause to the world is the Holy Spirit (John 16: 13), not a fallible, flesh-and-blood political leader. The bible makes it clear that we are not to put too much faith in political leaders (see Ps. 146: 3)”. If we refused to learn from history it is bad. From Church history we learned that when the organized Rome Churches set aside the leadership of the Holy Spirit after the departure of the early disciples/apostles, the organized Church in Rome started priesthood of titles and parishes after the political order of dioceses and same authoritarian state control of Churches. When the Churches then began to seek political recognition and backing, the State began to dictate to the Church leadership then; the result was that the Church could no longer be light or give direction to the State that led to the dark ages. (Read, “The Church Politicized” in World History and Cultures” by George T. Thompson and Laurel Elizabeth Hicks, pp. 121-122).
Priest, Pastors and Bishops taking to the extreme partisan politicking has affected our corporate image, destroyed some ministries/churches and led to some great servants of God to backslide in the past. Politicians like to take advantage of Pastors/churches’ needs to come around during elections to induce pastors/churches support to vote them to office. Ask before elections how many of these politicians attend church discipleship and training programmes? How many of them join other worshippers to pray for the betterment of the electorates? How many of the have visited and support small churches/pastors? What all these politicians are doing is gimmick not sincere commitment to the Lord. Pastors must be careful not to reduce our honour as God’s chosen servants by taking any political position that undermines our calling and reputation. Pastors know that you don’t need the vote of any politician or anybody to sustain your priesthood and ministry. Politicians must be careful not to induce support of the pastors/churches in whatever guise. It is God that enthrones neither pastors nor churches can.(Ps.75:6-7, Dan.2:20-21).
Read my article on “How to engage in Politics without losing your Soul”. Here are some excerpts suggestions: “Christians must never allow ourselves to equate the biblical Kingdom of God with any human political party or nation (John 18:36; Isaiah 9:7; Matthew 6:33, Philippians 3:20, Revelation 11:15). As Christians we must be diligent in maintaining and preserving the distinctiveness between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. Christians must never allow ourselves to elevate a specific politician to a messianic or savior status (1 Peter 3:15). In our entertainment and celebrity culture, it is becoming more common for people to infuse politicians with almost a messianic or savior status. In other words, people begin to believe a politician’s extraordinary promises and that they actually can single-handedly produce almost supernatural social results. As Christians, we have one Lord, and we must resist all attempts to exalt any human politician to unrealistic heights. Christians must not just vote, but more importantly, we must pray for our government and the leaders of all political parties (Matthew 5:44, 1 Timothy 2:1-2). In our polarized political society, many Christians are tempted to bless the politician or political party they support, and curse the other one they don’t. How unbiblical! The Bible is clear, we are to pray for all political and government leaders, even our political enemies. Christians must never allow ourselves to bring the divisiveness and polarization of political parties into the church, the family of God (Romans 16:17, 1 Corinthians 1:11-12).
We cannot allow partisan politics to divide the body of Christ. Individual Christians have freedom of conscience before God and the Bible, and as a result, we must accept the fact that there will be diversity of political opinions in the church. We must never allow diverse political perspectives cause conflict and divisions in the church. Christians must never allow ourselves to demonize or dehumanize another person – no matter what politician it is – because every single human has been created in the image of God (Colossians 3:8, Matthew 7:1, James 4:12). Christians must not engage in demeaning and judging other people, no matter whether we agree with them politically or not.
Christians must never engage in angry confrontational arguments, instead of being open to learn through civil debate and dialogue (James 1:20, Philippians 2:14-16, 2 Timothy 2:14). When we interact with other people with hard-core dogmatic positions, we demonstrate an ugly pride that demeans the character of Christ. As Christians we must humble ourselves, understand that as humans we are limited in our understanding, and that we all can learn more about the very complex issues that face our nation. Christians must always engage in politics through a path of reason and civility. Christians must never allow ourselves to become so intertwined so closely with one political party that we forfeit our independent identity as followers of Christ. When we do, we lose the prophetic voice to speak and clarify biblical truth to all politicians and political parties (1 Timothy 3:15, Ephesians 4:15, Romans 3:4). Christians must never allow ourselves to engage in partisan politics by supporting divisiveness between races, between male and female, between rich and poor, and between the young and old (Matthew 5:9, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Electoral politics is all about dividing society into specific voting blocks. And as a result, politics usually divides our society, instead of uniting it. Christians must always function as peacemakers and reconcilers in the public square, and resist every temptation to join the political tactics of dividing people for political gain. Christians must not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of simply cursing the darkness through negativity, instead of constructively engaging our world as preserving salt and illuminating light (Matthew 5:13-16). The cultural and missionary mandate of kingdom Christians requires us to stop cursing the darkness and start lighting more candles that reflects God’s truth, compassion, and love.
Dr. Lewis Akpogena
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