This year's political conventions were the most memorable of any in my recent memory. The first black Presidential nominee, potentially the first female Vice-President, the gulf storms completely altering the first day of the Republican convention and an unprecedented amount of tech-heavy fanfare across the board.
Normally, political hoopla of this magnitude will be paralleled by public, political posturing by some of America's most prominent Christian leaders. But this year may be different. In the last year or two, many Christians have reacted against "the over-politicization of the American Church." (I could cite many articles and books like the recent bestseller Unchristian and We the Purple.) This year, I think many people hope that Church leaders will take the opportunity to react differently than in the past.
This is the thrust of my article for the newly-launched ministry quarterly, Neue, entitled, Post-Convention Pastoring. In it, I encourage those of us in ministry to "lead like Jesus" by avoiding partisan posturing and, instead, sticking to the issues and values that Jesus promoted.
Take a minute to read the article and let me know your thoughts and opinions.
3 comments:
I agree w/ you whole heartedly...I believe we should focus on the issues and not the traditions of the past. I love how you said to Lead like Jesus. I know it is so old school say say What would Jesus do, but when you really think about how much clarity can spring from those 4 words, it almost makes sense to say it... Excellent article!
oh and I can't believe you called sarah palin hockey mom hot...haha.
just a note, Palin isn't the first woman VP nominee, Geraldine Ferraro ran with Mondale in the 80's as VP nominee. Palin is the first Republican female nominee.
I agree that pastors need to be unpartisan from the pulpit or speaking as a Religious leader. Personally, I greatly lean toward the Republican party because I find they fall more in line with moral issues that I agree with. But you have to evaluate the parties stances on more than just the moral issues but also how you believe the country should be governed.
Republicans tend to lean more to less govt control, less taxes, more of a federalist mentality with less federal govt dictation.
Where as Democrats lean more to more govt control, more taxes, more programs, more federal dictation over the state govts.
You can't just ignore the view of ideas of governing the country. Moral and social issues are very good and need to be addressed but for me, I stick with Republicans not just of the moral issues but their views of government.
As for social issues, there are some works to be done...but isn't that the responsibility of the Church, biblically speaking. Reliance shouldn't have to be placed on the govt.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why more people don't see the importance of voting the issues and not the parties. I hear people time and time that are so partisan that they either ignore or justify the fact that they don't even know where a candidate stands on issues that should be vitally important to a follower of Christ. I think that the example you used with the life of Christ is completely appropriate. I just wish that more Christians would see the need to address the important issues of the day with a biblical worldview aside from any partisan biases.
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