Can Politicians be Followers of Jesus?

[Bootstrap]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

No, but I would be quite comfortable preaching on a text like this:

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself…”
— Leviticus 19:34

And the fact that this is now politically controversial does not change that. I preached on texts like this back when Christians generally supported refugees across the board. I don't think politicians should determine what parts of the Bible we preach or avoid.

[JohnH]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

No, but I would be quite comfortable preaching on a text like this:

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself…”
— Leviticus 19:34

And the fact that this is now politically controversial does not change that. I preached on texts like this back when Christians generally supported refugees across the board. I don't think politicians should determine what parts of the Bible we preach or avoid.

Which is something we can personally practice, but the government “cannot love someone as themselves”.

[GaryK]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

Thanks for that question, I was wondering as well, what "calling out" a politician entails.

I am a firm believer that politics, politicians, and most issues revolving around politics should stay out of the church.

Are the doors of a church house where all Christians should drop their politics and then feel free to pick them up again on the way out?

[JohnL]

I am a firm believer that politics, politicians, and most issues revolving around politics should stay out of the church.

Are the doors of a church house where all Christians should drop their politics and then feel free to pick them up again on the way out?

I think it's fair game for a preacher to name policies and laws from the pulpit that goes against Bible teachings. It's also fair game for a preacher to exhort their membership to exam every candidate's stance on the most horrible of of laws and policies like abortion and homosexual unions. I think we wade into trouble when names of politicians are used from the pulpit because doesn't that get into violating elections, taxes and nonprofits?

[R7ehr]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

Thanks for that question, I was wondering as well, what "calling out" a politician entails.

I am a firm believer that politics, politicians, and most issues revolving around politics should stay out of the church.

Are the doors of a church house where all Christians should drop their politics and then feel free to pick them up again on the way out?

Not with one’s bare hands. Advised to wear quality PPE, and use tongs or at least gloves, to carefully pick them up and deposit them onto Mennonet where they can be safely incinerated.

[Grace]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

Thanks for that question, I was wondering as well, what "calling out" a politician entails.

I am a firm believer that politics, politicians, and most issues revolving around politics should stay out of the church.

Are the doors of a church house where all Christians should drop their politics and then feel free to pick them up again on the way out?

I guess I wasn't very clear in my statement. I meant the pulpit should not be used to promote politicians one way or the other. I do believe the pulpit can be used to offer guidance how to deal with some cultural /political/societal issues from a Christian Anabaptist perspective. An example would be a sermon I heard some time back, on how we as Anabaptists, should respond to the homosexual people, we might rub shoulder with, from the outside world or even within our own families.

I also believe that ministers can warn the congregants about some of the ungodly trends in politics that might affect the congregants.

[Ken]

Here is a question that I believe will help me understand what you mean by "calling out". Would you be comfortable calling out Trump, Biden, Byron Donalds..., the immigration policies Trump is implementing, etc. in a Sunday sermon?

No, but I would be quite comfortable preaching on a text like this:

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself…”
— Leviticus 19:34

And the fact that this is now politically controversial does not change that. I preached on texts like this back when Christians generally supported refugees across the board. I don't think politicians should determine what parts of the Bible we preach or avoid.

Which is something we can personally practice, but the government “cannot love someone as themselves”.

The government is people.

[Ken]

I think we can always call people to a closer walk with Jesus but there is a self defeating element to doing it to politicians. Fighting fire with fire is ultimately admission that fire is morally neutral and calling out politicians is itself engaging in politics.

But not in the same way.

If in order food at a restaurant and call out the chef for burning my food, it's true that I'm engaging in culinary pursuits, as is the chef. But we each have a FUNDAMENTALLY different role. It's not fair to compare me to the chef.

Engaging in politics is not a bad thing. In fact, NOT engaging in politics is anti-Christian. That is because "politics" is just a short word that means "collaborative solutions for problems that cannot or should not be solved on the individual level." A church members meeting is "politics". A PTA meeting is politics. An amish barn raising is politics.

The thing Christians ought to stay away from is not "politics", it is "power". That's the difference between the politician and the person "calling out the politician". The former has power. The latter is speaking truth TO power. The former is playing the role of King. The latter is playing the role of prophet. Just like the chef and the patron, the politician and the prophet are two very different roles.

This is a redefinition of politics. If you ask the average person of an Amish barn raising is politics, they will say “no”.

If you ask the average person if there is politics in their church (i.e. church politics) they will say yes. And there is no doubt church politics within the Amish community as well that spills over into every aspect of their lives from managing their community schools to raising barns to determining what kind of bicycles their children are allowed to ride. With respect to Amish barns, I would expect there are politics involved in whether they get painted and if so, what color, what kind of mechanization is allowed, and even the design.

[Bootstrap]

No, but I would be quite comfortable preaching on a text like this:

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself…”
— Leviticus 19:34

And the fact that this is now politically controversial does not change that. I preached on texts like this back when Christians generally supported refugees across the board. I don't think politicians should determine what parts of the Bible we preach or avoid.

Which is something we can personally practice, but the government “cannot love someone as themselves”.

Still, God holds governments and nations to account. Not only for abortion and sexual immorality. And not just Israel.

Ezekiel 16:49–50
Sin of Sodom
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

Daniel 4:27
Nebuchadnezzar, Babylonian King
“Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”

Of course, Israel was also held to account.

Jeremiah 22:13–17
Judgment on King Jehoiakim
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
his upper rooms by injustice,
making his own people work for nothing,
not paying them for their labor...
He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?”
—declares the Lord.

The general principle is the same for both Israel and other nations:

Isaiah 10:1–4
Woe to Unjust Leaders
“Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

Amos 5:11–15, 21–24
Warning to Israel’s Ruling Class
“You levy a straw tax on the poor
and impose a tax on their grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them...
Let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

The prophets condemn other nations, not just Israel, for doing wrong. For instance, in Amos we see condemnation of:

• Damascus (Aram) for cruelty in war (Amos 1:3–5)
• Gaza (Philistia) for selling whole communities into slavery (1:6–8)
• Tyre for breaking treaties and enslaving people (1:9–10)
• Edom for pursuing vengeance and bloodshed (1:11–12)
• Ammon for violent oppression of pregnant women in war (1:13–15)
• Moab for desecrating human dignity (2:1–3)

In the New Testament, Jesus did not support violent revolution, but he did challenge the political and religious status quo.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

Caesar can have his coin, but we owe everything to God.

My kingdom is not of this world.

Yet it is already in this world, working subversively against the worldly powers. Not the way they do it.

In Romans 13, when Paul says the government is God's servant, I think that also means it has responsibility as well as authority, and it will be judged. That does not change in the New Testament.

[Bootstrap]

A few thoughts about how the last message applies to Jesus ...

Jesus used prophetic power, but not political power. We see that when he flips the tables in the temple, or when he calls out the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in Matthew 23. A lot of this is about abuse of spiritual authority—especially how they burden the poor and seek status. On Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem with crowds saying "Hosanna", the Roman guard, the temple guard, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees saw that as a danger. He was confronting the people who ran things. That's why they crucified him.

I do wonder what Jesus would have to say to politicized churches in America today. It's easy to look back to the politicization of churches in Nazi Germany and see what they did wrong. How do we warn of the same dangers today?

When we discuss things here on MN, we are not telling the politicians what to do, we are discussing things as Christians. And for us, the teachings of Jesus and the rest of the Bible clearly do apply. To me, considering what is going on around us from a Christian perspective is often important, we need to have our eyes open and discern.

Right now, I think we also need to watch and pray. We always do, but this feels like a critical time to me.