The pastor of the local church that my family and I attend has used the pulpit from time to time to advocate political positions and certain politicians, which I have always viewed as a dubious practice. I was reminded of my pastor’s sermons as I read this Cathy Young/ReasonOnline article on the questionable cultural legacy of the late Jerry Falwell:
Though the movement Falwell helped launch was unable to enact much of its agenda into law, there is no question that it transformed the American political landscape. Even the battles it hasnít won, such as the effort to teach ìintelligent designî in schools on a par with evolution, are still battles it was able to force on its opponents.
More broadly, it helped create a climate in which the language of politics is saturated with references to God, a political culture in which a major political magazine (Newsweek) can ask a presidential candidate (Howard Dean) whether he believes in Jesus Christ as the son of God and the path to eternal life.
Despite these political inroads, Falwellís brand of religious conservatism has suffered losses in the culture wars. Feminism, its radical excesses mostly discarded, has become firmly integrated into Americaís cultural mainstream. (Even, apparently, in Falwellís own family: His daughter is a surgeon.) Acceptance of gays is now at a level that would have been unthinkable in 1980. Sexual content in mainstream entertainment has steadily increased, and adults-only material is more available than ever thanks to new technologies. While divorce rates have dropped somewhat, so have marriage rates; in much of America, sex between single adults is widely accepted as a social norm.
Along those same lines, this CNN article reports on a Kentucky church’s “Court Watch” program in which volunteers attend court hearings to monitor how judges are handling drug-related cases. It’s clear that the members of the church group are not interested in facilitating leniency in sentencing in such cases.
Several years ago, while sweating a jury in a civil case at the courthouse, I attended the daily initial appearance docket call in the juvenile criminal court next door. It was a heartbreaking experience and prompted me to begin doing pro bono work in the local juvenile criminal justice system. Since then, I’ve attended numerous such initial appearance dockets in the juvenile criminal justice system. I have never seen a member of any Christian organization attending one of those dockets.
The pastor of the local church that my family and I attend has used the pulpit from time to time to advocate political positions and certain politicians, which I have always viewed as a dubious practice.
I tend to agree with your take on pastors using the pulpit to advocate specific policies or to push particular politicians.
Then again, many of the religious sermons of the founding era served to transmit and spread the political philosophy that eventually produced the regime, so it’s not as if we don’t have a history of religion and politics intersecting at times.
What do you mean by this:”I have never seen a member of any Christian organization attending one of those dockets.”? You were there; you are a member of a Christian organization; you are therefor called to be there as a Christian, as am I and all other Christians. I have taught youth Sunday School and I submit that one of our goals was to keep youth from appearing in Juv Court. Christians are not called to change the world by political means, although one’s faith obviously must affect one’s political views. Christians are called to change the world one person at a time. Judas Iscariot was probably one of the young Jews who were fomenting rebellion against the Roman authorities and therefore could be said to have advocated the political path, which was not the path Jesus took. He obviously knew Jesus was not an ordinary man, that he had power. Once could infer from his actions that Judas sought to accelerate a confrontation between Jesus and the authorities, expecting that Jesus would then reveal Himself, overthrow the hated Romans, and set up His kingdom, but he understood only in worldly terms what Jesus was about, and so misunderstood and underestimated Jesus’ mission.
Randy, my point is that a Christian organization attempting to provide help and support for families involved in the juvenile criminal justice system would likely have a far more positive impact on individuals and communities than advocating harsher sentences for drug offenders.
Point taken, and I agree completely. My point is: who is in a better position to form such a group where it is obviously needed, than yourself? We realize that not everyone claiming to be Christian (“little Christs”)actually are; not every act of a church member is what Christ would actually approve, so it is wrong to put down a Church organization which is off-mission without being willing to step in and help get it back on the right path. Society has the right to expect protection from the predators via the justice system, no? In my opinion, the first role of the justice system is to provide this protection, not necessarily to rehabilitate or forgive the offenders. I do agree with your opinions regarding political advocacy from the pulpit.