Dear Friends,
That God loves Democrats may be a surprise to the Republicans
and that He loves Republicans may be equally as surprising to Democrats.
The fact is, God loves all people, regardless of their political brand. He
died for all people, not just the Republicans or the Democrats. Unfortunately, many
of us have distorted His teaching to justify our
political persuasions, and I confess that there have been too many times
when I have been guilty of doing just this. In my personal conversations I
have sometimes acted like God is a partisan politician.
Yes, I care about the political issues before us, and yes, I have
strong personal convictions about those issues, but I am not going to use
the pulpit to promote or endorse a political party or a political
candidate.
Doing so would be like me hanging a banner over the front door of
the church saying, "Democrats or Republicans (you make the
choice) are not welcome here."
I want everyone to know Jesus, and I don't want to allow my
personal political preferences, whatever they may be, to become a roadblock
that would keep one half of our country from meeting Jesus.
The church is for all people, rich, poor, young, old, black,
brown, and white, and yes Republicans and Democrats, and we must be
careful to make everyone feel welcome regardless of their political
views. Jesus related to almost everyone, because people always felt loved and
accepted when they were with Him, and the church must cannot do anything
less.
This does not mean that we will accept or agree with everyone's
political positions, or that we compromise our biblical principles, but it
does mean we will love them in spite of our differences because that's what
Jesus would do.
I am happy that our church has resisted the temptation to preach
politics from the pulpit. It is not because we as pastors do not have our own
strong personal convictions. Not at all. In deliberately choosing not to become
politically 'persuasive', we have opted to embrace the teaching of the Apostle
Paul who writes, "I became like one under the law (though I myself am not
under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I
became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am
under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.(To the Jews I
became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one
under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under
the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law
(though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win
those not having the law. (1 Corinthians 9:20-21)
Pastor Andy Stanley has written a much-needed commentary on
the importance of not allowing politics to divide us from one another,
something that has happened too many times in today's church.
The title of the book is Not In It to Win It, and his
plea is for the church to recognize that we must follow Jesus and Him alone and
not allow our personal political preferences
to fracture relationships and divide our churches.
In his book he writes, "What a coward. Poser. Pretender. Come
on, Paul. Choose a position! You can’t stand in the middle. You’re either hot
or you’re cold. Are you afraid of losing followers? Are you trying to have it
both ways? Those were sentiments communicated by a good many conservative
church folks toward their pastors in the months leading up to the last
election. Pastors, like me, who refused to politicize our churches despite
intense pressure and criticism. Our refusal to take a side was interpreted as
refusal to take a stand—though, in fact, we had taken a stand. We were
correctly and courageously refusing to politicize the ekklesia of Jesus. We
were demonstrating our commitment to the Great Commission. We refused to
alienate half our community by siding with one political party over the other.
We chose to stand with Jesus in the messy middle, where problems are solved,
rather than capitulate to divisive, broad-brush political talking points."
(Not In It to Win It, Andy Stanley, p.8)
I close by reminding believers that Jesus never taught his
followers to follow a political persuasion. He simply said, "Come and
follow Me," and those are the words I think He would have us hear today.
Yours in faith and friendship,
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