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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Pulpit politics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last weekend the top two celebrities in the Democratic presidential contest, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, ventured south to Selma to pitch their campaigns to voters in black churches. If the visits evoked concern by any liberal commentator anywhere about the separation of church and state, it was not evident on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or… Imagine, however, how many would have found themselves “frightened” and “angry” if a couple of bigwig Republicans had pitched their messages from the pulpit to evangelicals.
It really is time for the media to get to one standard on whether it’s permissible for candidates to take their politics into the pulpit. It can’t be quaint in one instance, excused as “tradition,” and condemned in another.
Without question, people of faith should get involved in politics and ministers should preach on social issues that grow out of their religious beliefs. But that’s considerably different than pitching camp permanently with one party or the other and with using the church as a campaign tent.
A black congregation moved from Atlanta to my Cobb County neighborhood. I attended one Sunday to hear Andrew Young, advertised as the guest preacher. If I remember the sermon correctly, God isn’t happy with Republicans— or at least He doesn’t approve of the way George W. Bush is running the country. A sanctuary ought to be a sanctuary — from politics.
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