Despite all my prayers for deliverance, it’s political season. I have a complex relationship with politics. I have very definite political opinions and views and I’m passionate about them because I think they matter. Our political views shape how life happens in our world, and not just for me but for my family, my friends, and people living a thousand miles away whom I will never meet. I have strong feelings and earnest thoughts about:
- taxes and how that money is used
- the second amendment
- immigration
- capital punishment
- abortion
- terrorism
- social security
and a hundred other things. I have strong feelings about these topics and I want to participate in the process of it.
At the same time, I am a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a Baptist in particular, I hold dearly to the separation of Church and State. I believe in it because I believe that faith in God is a matter of personal freedom. One should not be coerced into faith through the strong-arm of social norms, nor should one be mandated based on the powers that be. I believe that the government has no authority over matters of the soul.
There are some in the Baptist stream who would say that the Church’s role is to directly shape public policy – legislate morality, as it were. I can’t buy that. When the “Church” (read: most powerful voting bloc) begins to tell government how to govern, it is the day that all other ways of faith are made illegal. As a Baptist, that grosses me out.
There are others in the 
Baptist stream who argue for the Separation of Church and State by exiting the conversation altogether. “I don’t talk about politics at all.” I can understand this impulse. Our political sphere is a hotbox of poisonous snakes, and I’m not the snake-handling kind of Baptist. But is silence our only option?
I hope not.
A fellow minister shared his thoughts on it. The minister’s role is to be prophetic in these times. Our job, as leaders, is to state clearly the picture of the Kingdom of God that Jesus taught us. We speak about what the world ought to be according to our best understanding of Christ. That will have political ramifications. That might even line up more with one political party than another. But it won’t endorse a party. Jesus is not Republican and the Holy Spirit isn’t a Democrat.
So as we barrel ever nearer to November and all of the pageantry that goes with it, you may wonder what I have to say about the election or politics or the hot-button issue that demands an answer. My goal is to never let my political opinions be the focus. My goal is ever to preach the Gospel and let that shape our politics.