How a pastor can keep quiet and keep out of the culture war that’s raging all around us is beyond me. As far as I’m concerned, the pastors who will not publicly weigh in on the current insane societal and political issues are about as useful to God as a tuning fork is to Yoko Ono.
The reasons why some “reverends” are rancidly reticent, cower behind their pulpits and curtsy to the secular progressive thought police usually roll out like this:
1. They want to be loved, and therefore, they fear man. Here’s some advice for those ministers who love to be loved. If you want a friend . . . get a dog. Make sure it’s a real dog, though, and not one of those Paris Hilton, teacup things. Get a bulldog. A pit bull, an Olde English Bulldogge, an American Bulldog, a Staffy Bull, an English Bull Terrier, a Bull Mastiff, a Dogo—or something with some oomph to it. Hopefully, your bulldog’s spirit will rub off on your uncertain, timid and insecure soul. Now that you have a friend in your new bulldog, and you don’t need us to fawn over you, tell us the truth and not what we think we want to hear. Get it? (Got it.) Good.
2. They stay ignorant about pressing cultural issues. There are many excuses given by pastors who remain in the dark; and none of them will hold water when the pastor dies, stands before a holy God and God asks him, “Hey, Dinky, give me one good reason why you chose to be ignorant and be silent when you should have been more in the know than Mark Steyn and more vocal than Cojo on crystal during this crisis?”
3. They hate divisive issues. If you hate division, Dr. Not-So-Stout, then you ought to get a job somewhere else—because Christ guaranteed his boys, up front, that serious opposition, for right reasons, is par for their course. So the wobbly minister has two options: grow some ‘nads or nod out.
4. They believe the world’s about to end, so . . . why bother? Having convinced themselves that we have now arrived at the end of time, they content themselves to just sit and wait on the rapture train to take them out of this mess. If you’re right, and Jesus is coming back mañana, well then . . . no problem. But if you’re wrong, then boy, has your lack of involvement screwed your children, your children’s children and our nation.
5. They are lazy. Being a viable voice means one has got to do a lot of extra busy work that’ll push them out of the ruts they’re in. Ministry becomes easy after a few years of doing it, and some pastors would rather stick with what they can do in their sleep rather than launch out into the deep on difficult societal issues that directly impact their people.
6. They don’t want to lose their Tax Exempt status. Many pastors, priests and parishioners have been cowed into inactivity by the threatened loss of their tax-exempt status if they say anything remotely political. This can make pastors who don’t, or won’t, get good legal advice about as politically active as Howard Hughes was during the flu season.
The church may, among other things, register their members to vote, pass out voter guides, invite all candidates in a race to speak (even if only one of them shows up) and speak directly about specific issues.
Off the clock, in his personal capacity, the pastor or priest can endorse and support (or oppose) whomever or whatever he wishes—like any other citizen. There are no limitations to the individual; the ones that do exist under the 501(c)(3) statute are only for the church entity and/or the pastor in his official capacity, not for the pastor or the members who make up the church.
7. They bathe in paltry pietism. Pastors and priests avoid politics because such concerns are “unspiritual,” and their focus is on the “spirit world.” Yes, to such imbalanced ministers, political affairs are seen as “temporal and carnal,” because pastors and priests trade in the “eternal and spiritual,” such “transient” issues get the same attention from them as Rosie’s AbBlaster does from her.
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