“John, you jerk! Politics don’t belong in church!!! Haven’t you ever heard of the separation of church and state??!!! We’re supposed to preach the Gospel, NOT TALK ABOUT POLITICS!!!!! YOU DIVISIVE, HATEFUL JERK!!”
Where did you get the idea that politics don’t belong in church? You didn’t get it from Scripture. It comes from self proclaimed ‘Christian’ teachers who preach a gospel they were taught in secular education.
A real life preacher person in an actual Christian church wrote, “If you are a Christian and Jesus is your Lord, there is no room in your life for politics or anything else to usurp Him.” This is a statement that is both completely correct and profoundly unhelpful. Obviously, if Jesus is my Lord then everything (including politics) are subject to Him. As a Christian, I am free to discuss ANY topic while Jesus remains on His throne. In fact, Jesus lordship over my life is what QUALIFIES me to speak.
The Christian perspective is crucial to our culture. When you folks in the pulpit tell God’s people to stop talking politics, you’re literally telling us to yield our entire system of government to paganism. If political talk is ‘off limits,’ we can’t evangelize anyone in the political arena.
I’ve noticed that you’re only concerned about political conversations in church. You’re not bothered by any other ‘non-gospel’ topic. You’ll dedicate a Sunday service to the Superbowl. You’ll spend weeks doing a sermon series called, ‘At The Movies.’ You’ll preach about ‘mental health,’ or ‘diet and exercise,’ or ‘money management,’ or ‘work ethics,’ or ‘relationships.’ You understand (correctly) that all those are relevant topics to Christians. So…why do politics make you so uncomfortable?
Maybe…just maybe…(I’m spit balling here)…you are letting politics usurp Jesus. You’ve made politics into an idol and you can’t fathom that I have not. Your dire warning against ‘politics in church’ is just projection. You think I must be guilty of your sin.
Scripture is chock full of politics. Christians can only eliminate politics from our speech if we stop referencing the Bible. I don’t think that’s wise so I am going to ignore your command to leave my politics at the door.
(Acts 25:9) Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”