Willy Rice, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, wants pastors to “step up” before the midterms. He told Fox News that abortion, marriage, gender identity, and immigration are “deeply, profoundly theological issues” that go back to Genesis 1 and 2, and that Christians retreated from the public square while the left never did. He is right. Christians should be involved in politics, and pastors should be part of that.
The problem is when pastors show up. Most wait to show up until October, when the only question left is which party wins, and by then the choices were already made in primaries most pastors ignored. If pastors want to shape American politics, they need to be involved when the candidates are nominated, not just when the general election happens.
Texas is the case study. Voters there are being asked to choose between James Talarico, a “seminarian” who thinks God is non-binary, and Ken Paxton, a serial adulterer whose own staff turned him into authorities for corruption. Texans have to choose between the heretic and the crook and many pastors are vocally insistent Paxton is the lesser of two evils. These same pastors are, essentially, telling Christians to vote for an evil. These same pastors were, pretty explicitly, completely silent in the Republican Primary, saying nothing about Ken Paxton’s character problems that may now cost the GOP an otherwise reliable Senate seat.
Likewise, many of the pastors now insisting Christians get involved in politics rationalized their silence about President Trump by saying we were electing a President, not a priest. That line became a permission slip. It started as a defense of a vote and became a reason never to say anything about the character of anyone with an R next to their name.
That is one of the great problems with evangelical pastors in America today. When they get involved in politics, they too often operate like everyone else — R v D binary. They are silent on the character of Republican candidates and politicians and quite loud about the character of Democrats. They rationalize it by saying the party, for the greater good, is better than the Democratic Party. On policy, it often is. Unfortunately, this Republican Party is the party whose White House, according to The Washington Sun, told the Justice Department to hold off on abortion action, including the abortion pill litigation, until after the midterms. “No one wants us taking any real action before the midterms” is how it was put. The White House denies it, but they would. Despite their denials, ample people confirm the Washington Sun’s reporting is true. It is the greater good, you see. The very issue pastors cite as the reason to stay loyal is the issue the party has asked them to keep quiet about until November.
Character is not a private matter that sits outside politics. Every Christian knows a man’s private conduct reveals his worldview, and his worldview shapes his public decisions. A man who will lie to his wife will lie to his constituents. A man who will use his office to protect a friend will use it to protect himself. Scripture does not separate the private man from the public one, and pastors of all people should not either.
When pastors refuse to call out character on their own side, they do damage in two directions. They feed the secular cynicism that says Christians never cared about morality, only power. Every pastor who denounced Bill Clinton and now goes quiet about a Republican is proof. They also drive good Christians out of the process. I hear from them constantly. They love the Lord, they vote pro-life, and they are exhausted by being told that faithfulness requires them to support openly corrupt politicians. Some stop voting, and some stop going to church. The pastors who meant to bring Christians into the public square are chasing them out of it.
When you never find conflict between your faith and your politics, your politics has become your god. A pastor’s job is not to serve as chaplain to a party. His job is to be a shepherd who calls everyone, Republican and Democrat, to Christ, which means speaking with moral clarity to every side, including the side he votes for. I am afraid too many pastors in politics today are more inclined to be team players for the GOP than clear thinkers and shepherds.
It’s great to focus on abortion, transgenderism, marriage, and immigration. But if pastors are not talking about the cared owed an illegal immigrant in the deportation process, he’s too scared of a political base and not fearful enough of the Lord. If he can call out the heresies of a progressive politician, but he is silent on the corruption festering within the GOP, he’s not realy fulfilling his role.
Willy Rice is right that pastors need to step up, and I hope they take him at his word. I hope they start in the primaries, and I hope they bring the whole counsel of God with them rather than just the parts that help the party. The church has a voice in the public square, and it should use it. In using it, it should not stay silent on the sins of its preferred politicians.
