Posted on 10/09/2012 11:58:32 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Both conservative and progressive (liberal) church seem to be anxious about the 2012 presidential election. The anxiety is so great that many pastors are willing to bind the consciences of other Christians by telling them how to vote. Over at The Daily Beast, David Sessions highlights the much complained about annual “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” where "copies of hundreds of illegal sermons being mailed to the IRS to challenge its restriction on tax-exempt organizations endorsing political candidates." On the other hand, black pastors, like the Rev. Ottis Moss, pastor President Obama's former church in Chicago for example, are directing Christians in black churches in the same way. Should pastors be doing this?
According to SpeakUpMovement.org the current restriction on pastors talking politics from the pulpit began in 1954, when, then senator, Lyndon B. Johnson proposed the restriction as an amendment to the § 501(c)(3) tax exemption for charitable organizations "to keep two nonprofit organizations in Texas from supporting his political opponent, but the amendment has also had the effect of restricting the right of pastors to speak freely from the pulpit." In other words, the law represents the abuse of law as a political maneuver instead of the use of law for the common good. During the 2008 presidential campaign, many Americans were alarmed how politicized Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's former pastor, was from the pulpit. Sessions worries that "on the ground in evangelical churches, explicit political talk carries the risk of being divisive and alienating, two things that are deadly to most churches’ goal of getting as many people as possible into the fold." I wonder, however, why this is not also true for all pastors regardless of tradition.
Rev. Otis Moss II and Rev. Charles Jenkins explicitly state all black Christians in black churches "must" vote to reelect president Obama.
"As African-American clergy deeply committed to the welfare of our communities and the future of our country, we are writing to offer our strong and enthusiastic endorsement of President Barack Obama. In the face of laws designed to limit democracy, and voices seeking to depress the participation of our community rather than to empower it, we will not be silent. Too much blood was shed for us to remain on the sidelines. We must stand up once more, and we must keep marching on this November. We must reelect this President."
I am beginning to wonder what Barack Obama can do to support human flourishing in black communities when the prevailing pathologies destroying those neighborhoods, and the rest of America, are primarily moral in nature. The culture of death that sees an unborn child as a non-human, women birthing children out of the context of marriage, the black-on-black violence sending young black men to graves, the breakdown of the family, and so on, are all moral problems that politics cannot fix.
I'm no passivist by any means but it seems that Christians, progressive and conservative alike, may be expecting more from politics than politics can deliver. Our politicians and laws reflect the morality of America's citizenry. Does it not, then, seem more effective for social change for pastors to admonish Christians to focus on pointing their neighbors to Christ? The social change that Christians truly want in America will come when we, the people, desire to live according to our Creator's design.
....I'm no passivist by any means but it seems that Christians, progressive and conservative alike, may be expecting more from politics than politics can deliver. Our politicians and laws reflect the morality of America's citizenry. Does it not, then, seem more effective for social change for pastors to admonish Christians to focus on pointing their neighbors to Christ? The social change that Christians truly want in America will come when we, the people, desire to live according to our Creator's design.
Obama: I’ll ‘fix’ yo azz, America. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Here is another question to ponder: “Can a president really DESTROY America?”
“Can a president really fix America?”
Not THIS one!
President Reagan fixed the mess that Carter helped create. If Mitt surrounds himself with like minded advisors like Paul Ryan, I think Mitt will turn us around, too.
We have one right now trying his damnest.
So limit government to 5 pages, 5000 words of total laws.
Suppose we limit government to only 5 pages, what would you keep?
Democrats found a way to violate the constitution so an amendment has to be added that quantifies limited government. Every year thousands of pages of new laws are passed at every level of government, state, local and federal. This is strangling our businesses and limiting our freedom and empowering government. The Constitution meant to limit government but democrats have ignored the constitution, the latest violating is this 3000 pages of Obamacare which already has created 13,000 pages of government regulations. The supreme court would have to reject that, even no congress critter could propose anything without first repealing something to make room for a new law
“Can a president really fix America?”
Not THIS one!
Can a President fix America?
America is not broken. She is suffering from the effects of Godless and ignorant leadership, but that CAN be fixed.
Reagan did.
Job was a righteous man and (reverently) feared God.
Satan complained to God that the only reason Job was so righteous was because God has His hands on Job.
God took away His protection and gave Satan free reign with the exception, he couldn't kill Job.
Satan INFLUENCED Job all OVER the place ... taking livestock, family health and wealth from Job, but Job had it in his heart to serve God anyway (though with a LOT of questions)
Satan used three of Jobs friends to cleverly attack God, and Job stood strong
satan used Job's wife to get him to deny God, but THAT didn't work neither.
So the answer is; ONE can be a great influence to do good or evil, but the ultimate decision and action is the one BEING influenced.
America has been under attack for a long tie, and our kids were the latest and greatest attack of them all ... using them to influence us to do all MANNER of things that are so ... collective. (re-cycle, stop smoking, go green ... I won't explain all this right now ... it just is)
Zero was in the catbird seat (he thought), but there are enough people still alive that have core AMERICAN VALUES that got out of the recliner and said, "That's enough!"
One man can use influence to change a nation IF some ducks are already in a row
By himself change a nation?
no.
My Church had a Pulpit Free Sunday and the message was sobering.
Ronald Reagan did after Carter screwed things up REAL BAD.
No.
No, a president cannot fix America. But he has a lot of power to point us in the right direction.
Thanks to the Leftists in the Rat party, academics, the news media and too many Republicans, conservatives and Christians that have acquiesced, the nation has long been working toward goals that lead to nothing. . . or nothing but destruction.
>>Should pastors be doing this?
Should pastors be silent when over 300 million people are facing financial ruin, poverty, and eventual slavery to a Godless state (whether it be in communism or islam)? God works through His people. Voting to remove a wannabee dictator is probably preferable in His eyes to having to fight a revolution to free ourselves.
You may have to be a Doctor to “fix” a patient...
but, any idiot can smother an otherwise recovering patient.
Obama’s taxes, regulation, foreign policy, and assorted anti-constitutional acts, have served as his pillow.
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