The church of today has become far too partisan than it should have ever been and far less political that it should have ever been. Now I am using the words political and partisan in the sense of their real definitions. So if you cannot think of these words except through the perverted prism of modern media then this idea will not only not make any sense to you but it will probably also infuriate you. I understand.
The actual definition of politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions based on the understanding, desires and influences of the group. The church should be involved in politics. This has nothing to do with the idea that our founding fathers had in America of the so called separation of church and state. Does anyone actually believe that the founding fathers really wanted the church to sit still and be quiet and have no say what so ever in the laws that would so govern them. If you do, then you are a far left leaning partisan.
The word partisan is actually a military term and it means a fervent, generally militant supporter of a party, cause, faction or person. A member of an organized body of fighters who attack or harass an enemy, especially within occupied territory; a guerrilla. Saddam Hussein was a partisan, Muammar Ghadaffi was a partisan. They were professionals at inspiring people to slant, tilt and twist the truth until it appeared to support their way of thinking and then use it to attack and crush all of those who appeared to not see things correctly or not see things their version of correct. Thus we get the term political correctness. Which means, correctness according to our twisted version of correctness.
Now according to the true definition of these terms, when people complain about “church politics” they are actually complaining about church “partisanship”. To the church that is afraid to get involved in helping the community group to make wise decisions for the greater good with some influence from Godly men and women, then I must say, look around, you are getting exactly what you deserve. The church should have members that are city council men, sheriffs, mayors and so forth. It only makes sense.
The problem is that “church politics” is so distorted and disgustingly influenced by partisanship that now the church acts like the only way that it can influence community politics is with partisanship.
Let us look at church politics. Don’t be stupid and try to pretend like they don’t exist or even try to pretend like they are not even supposed to exist. God has a way for church politics to exist. I’m not going to choose sides here a slit my own throat all together, but let’s say that you believe in organized church government. Almost every, if not every, organized church government has eventually fallen prey to partisanship. One man or a group of men that have tremendous influence over each other eventually make their way to the top and everyone beneath them has to become partisan or suffer a guerilla attack from the partisans. Completely un-Christ like and very un-biblical. So the answer, some would say, is for each church to be autonomous one from each other. Sounds good on paper, but so does communism. The problem here, is the weaker churches are exploited by the stronger churches and the weaker ministers are exploited by the stronger ministers, and a pretend, fake, hypocritical shadow government is kind of, sort of, but not really, setup. Then once again, the only information that really gets out is the partisan information and anyone who does not follow it is attacked and harassed, especially if they are in “occupied territory”. Look at the definition of partisan again. If you get a preacher in a church that the NON-organized organization has some influence over, and said preacher will not toe the partisan line. Well this is unacceptable. But is this spiritual or just partisan?
So, while the church is learning to be disgustingly partisan instead of appropriately political and then the national, regional and local governments turn so anti-church as they have in modern times, the church does not have the tools or the training to fight back with. The church is used to following partisan hacks. Guerillas and butchers. So when they turn to public policy they end up following people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh who are just guerillas and butchers of a different color. The sad thing is that every time one of these partisans says something that we like we all run to their side, then when they say or do something stupid, we defend them. What? Where did we learn this?....Oh yeah, the church.
Just like when good men taught and preached that we should dress modest, shun the world and pray and fast. Then somewhere down the line they said something about coke and Pepsi being bad for a spiritual person and in the middle of a sermon they brought up punching, hating and killing homosexuals and one time they made a doctrine out of an actual hairstyle or if you do or do not ride roller coasters….uh oh. Now what do we do? Defend the person, or stick to the ideas of Christianity?
If someone tries to see things level and clear headed about every single subject, they will eventually be attacked when they don’t toe some partisan line. Whether it is in politics or in church.
Look at the tremendous and cult like following of some men like Sean Hannity, Alan Combs, Michael Moore, Bill Maher, Rush Limbaugh or Jon Stewart. These guys all make mistakes in facts and mistakes in judgment almost every day. But some of you already wish you could beat me to a bloody pulp right now just for mentioning them. Does that make you political or partisan? Does that make you an organizer, a pillar of the community, a Ronald Reagan, a Martin Luther King Jr, or does it make you a guerilla, a follower of men like Hussein and Ghadaffi. (figurative not literal)
Now turn it to the church. The church has men like this too. Who are the outspoken leaders of our groups? What are the great ideas that they had? What are the stupid things that they did? Who do you blindly follow? Who do you owe your allegiance to? And why? Because it is helping the greater good or because it is easy, lazy, and the best way not to get shot at? Hussein and Ghadaffi both ended up hiding in a hole somewhere with their supporters scattered to the four winds. This is always what happens to people that use God and His precepts and principles to attack and harass others with. To try to create a coalition to crush those who disagree.
I heard a man say that “I agree with almost every single thing that Sean Hannity believes”, but if George W Bush was found at 2 o’clock in the morning, stumbling drunk outside the white house, stark naked with two young women, Sean Hannity would make some calls, throw some bombs, have a TV special, give a speech and eventually convince millions of Americans to blame it on Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.” Wow, isn’t it true? If you don’t believe that then you are a far right leaning partisan.
Listen, President Bush was a great guy. He did some wonderful things. But he made some huge mistakes too. And there have been some great leaders of our churches that have been used tremendously by God but that doesn’t mean we need to build a modern day Pentecostal cult following around them. It stunts growth, it compromises thought and it hurts our ability to win souls!
The bottom line is this, weak people follow men and become partisan hacks, and strong people follow ideas and become political activists. Let me ask you this, why does the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have a single man that leads their party at a time, but the Tea Party has no singular figure? Because the Republican Party, as good as it was in the 1980’s, and Democratic Party, as good as it was in the 1950’s, have become about men, but the Tea Party is about ideas. Which one do you think is stronger? Is your “faith” about men or is it about biblical ideas???
Ok, so Bill Clinton was not Satan himself and George Bush was not the savior of the world. Just the same, some great church leaders did some awesome things in the Lord, but that doesn’t make them infallible. And, some preacher somewhere that prays and preaches and tries to live good and help people, should not be demonized because some more “important” preachers don’t like him. If all was fair and Christ like, we would defend the good and praise God for it and we would stand against the wrong, no matter who was doing it. But we would do both in charity and sincerity.
I know that there is not a direct comparison between politics and churches on all sides, but for the sake of this one glimpse into some of our problems, I think that it makes for a good comparison.
My humble opinion,
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