CREEDE HINSHAW: My pastor is preaching politics

I read a complaint from a church member upset because her pastor addressed what she called political matters from the pulpit. Although she didn’t specify the offensive subjects, there are plenty of possibilities: global warming, healthcare, immigration and the border wall, the war in Afghanistan, ill-conceived tweets or profanity laced tirades, clean energy or repression in Venezuela.

I have no idea whether this woman’s pastor goes full bore on “political” themes week after week. If he/she does, I’d get tired of it, too. A steady diet of the same old thing will eventually wear out any parishioner. You can only stand filet mignon so many consecutive nights before you’ve reached the point of no return. Every successful preacher knows there are many ways to preach and many themes to be addressed. Predictability is equated with dullness is equated with boredom in the pew.

What I learned over the years — sometimes the hard way — was that people would tolerate the pastor mentioning world and national events in the preaching or the prayers if it didn’t feel like the pastor was heavy handed. There were times when I crossed the line and made a remark unfair to a particular leader or over-simplified a topic, leading to immediate feedback — unfavorable and deserved — after the morning benediction. The pulpit is no place to score points with cheap political humor or banal political solutions.

President Trump provides a real challenge to those who stand in the pulpit. It is almost impossible to ignore him, either as his fervent supporter and defender or as his disgruntled and depressed critic. Either way, this president makes it almost impossible to pretend that what he says and does and tweets is negligible. Should pastors bury their heads in the sand rather than speak out about what the gospel has to say about leadership and our state of our union? Include Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell in this question if it makes you feel better.

The writer complaining about her pastor’s sermons seemed to want homilies about caring for widows and children and loving one another. These noble and worthy endeavors represent some of what Christians are called to do. But even such “innocuous” subjects often involve the government on some level. Only the timorous or blind pastor can avoid touching on the life that is all around us, whether that be transgendered persons, abortion, homosexuality, justice in the legal system, or a local government that seems callous or corrupt.

Even John the Baptist called out Herod for marrying his sister-in-law and Jesus himself publicly called Herod a fox. And Paul’s exhortation that the early church give exclusive loyalty to God in Christ was blatantly opposed to Caesar. You can’t avoid what’s all around you.

Most would not want a pastor who touted either political party exclusively or carped on the same subject, political or otherwise, week after week. But most also don’t want somebody oblivious to the world in the pulpit. If a pastor rubs you the wrong way every so often, that’s not a bad thing.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].