Mixing politics and religion is like mixing ice cream and manure; it doesn’t affect the manure much, but it really messes up the ice cream.
–Tony Campolo (1935-2024)
For the first several years of my ministry, I was a pastor in the ELCA. We were required to go to annual district/synod conventions. One year, I was also a delegate to the national convention. There was always too much mixing of politics and religion at these conventions. Much time was spent on long political resolutions, resolving that the State of Minnesota should do this, or the federal government should do that. Debates were divisive and sometimes angry. Then there were the nitpickers who annoyed everyone, wasting our time discussing and voting on whether the first word of resolution #28, paragraph 17, should read “whereas” or “therefore.” Former U.S. Congressman and former Governor of Minnesota Al Quie (1923-2023) was a member of an ELCA congregation, and a frequent delegate to these conventions. During one of those bitter debates, he went to the microphone and said, “Look folks, I’ve spent much of my life in government. I’ve been at both the state and national levels, and I assure you, no one, anywhere, will be paying any attention to anything you decide here today after all this angry debating.” And if by some chance it is noticed, it is usually not appreciated. Many surveys have shown that partisan political involvement by congregations and national church bodies has hurt, not helped, the church’s Gospel mission and message; like Campolo said, “messing up the ice cream without affecting the manure.” Individual Christian citizens can and should be informed participants in the political process of a free nation. But when we gather to worship God, that is what we should do; united by our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, even if we have differing political opinions.
Luke 20:25 — (Jesus said), “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
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ON TAKING FOR GRANTED OUR BLESSINGS:
Many seem weary of liberty, peace, and order. Our happy constitution, our mild government, our many privileges, admired by other nations, are despised and depreciated among ourselves — not only by the thoughtless and licentious, and those who, having little to lose, may promise themselves a possibility of gain in a time of disturbance and confusion;– but they are abetted and instigated by persons of sense, character, and even of religion. I should be quite at a loss to account for this, if I did not consider it as a token of the Lord’s displeasure. When He withdraws His blessing, no union can long subsist!
You might need to read this again, slowly and carefully. The long sentences are packed with meaning, and require some thought to absorb all what is being said. This sounds like it could be from an editorial in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Actually, it is from a sermon in 1794 by John Newton titled “The Imminent Danger and Only Sure Resource for our Nation.” Newton (1725-1807) was the author of the much-loved hymn “Amazing Grace.” His sermon text was Jonah 3:9: Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.
“Someone who could not even build a pigsty can destroy a chateau in a day.”
–David Berlinski, (1942- ), American mathematician and philosopher.
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REGARDING THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH BY THE GOVERNMENT:
Romans 12:2 — Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
From Peter Kreeft’s Knowing the Truth of God’s Love, 1988, pages 191-2 (updated):
What is the worst thing that can happen to the church? Not torture, murder, threats, persecution, or even the whole world conspiring to exterminate her from the face of the earth. That happened once (in the first century), and the result was the greatest growth the church has even seen. The ancient Latin saying of Tertullian confirms that. He said: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Nations where the church is persecuted today—like Russia, China, Iran, and Nigeria—show a far stronger, healthier, and fast-growing church than do nations where she is established, comfortable, and respected—nations like the United States, England, Canada, and Germany. China welcomed Christian missionaries for fifty years, and there were only two million conversions in those fifty years. Then, the communists shut the doors and persecuted the church for twenty years. After those twenty years of persecution there were twenty million Christians in China, and twenty years later there were thirty million.
No, the worst thing that can happen to the church is the thing that is happening now in First World countries, not what is happening in Second World countries (political hardship) or Third World countries (economic hardship)… The worst thing that can happen to the church is what is happening to the church now in the West, namely that the church is deliberately conforming to the world. This is a betrayal of her primary task, which is to conform the world to Christ. The leader has become the follower. “Follow Me” has turned into “Let us follow the spirit of the age.” The imitation of Christ has changed into the imitation of popular culture. Winning the world by converting it, has changed to trying to win the world by pandering to it.
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A PRAYER FOR THE NATION from The Book of Common Prayer:
Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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