{"id":3282,"date":"2012-03-09T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3282"},"modified":"2012-03-08T23:46:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T06:46:01","slug":"mega-fridays-the-politicization-of-sbc-sanctuaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3282","title":{"rendered":"Mega Fridays: The Politicization of SBC Sanctuaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what used to be confined to mostly Democrat, mostly African-American congregations, the politicization of the sanctuary has come to conservative, Republican-leaning\u00a0megachurches near you. During this year’s Republican Presidential campaign, it seems that the Mormon<\/del>\u00a0Roman Catholic candidates have\u00a0found a welcoming environment during Sunday morning\u00a0worship at several prominent Southern Baptist megachurches in the south. If the candidates were there to actually hear the\u00a0Word of\u00a0God, that would be completely understandable. But, that some churches have taken to\u00a0allowing their\u00a0sanctuaries\u00a0to be used as\u00a0just another campaign stop (there’s a Biblical\u00a0word\u00a0for that, but I will refrain from using it)\u00a0is nothing short of reprehensible.\u00a0Baptist churches are\u00a0autonomous and therefore free to do whatever they think “is right in their own\u00a0eyes,”<\/em> even if that means disregarding historic Baptist principles of religious liberty.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong. I\u00a0love politics and the political process, particularly campaigns and elections. From the moment I stepped foot on The George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 1984, I was hooked.\u00a0Three blocks from the Reagan White House and in the midst of the Presidential campaign, I came of age during my first semester of college.<\/p>\n

Growing up in\u00a0a Democrat family, I entered college identifying\u00a0with the Democrat\u00a0Party. When I discovered that Democrats in the\u00a0Northeast weren’t exactly like their counterparts in the south on a range of issues — including foreign policy, spending, taxation, and social issues like abortion — I began to distance myself from my family’s Democrat roots. When I was old enough to register to vote — which was days AFTER the 1984 Presidential Election — I registered as a Republican. That continues to be my party\u00a0affiliation to this day.<\/p>\n

However, a funny thing happened on my journey. The Lord called me from law to grace, from being a lawyer to being a pastor.\u00a0For me, that meant that\u00a0my passion was to be directed to ministry, not\u00a0politics. That doesn’t disallow an interest in government and\u00a0the political process, but it does call for a different type of engagement.\u00a0And, if it weren’t for 5 1\/2 years spent\u00a0pastoring a church in a heavily Democrat area of SW\u00a0Virginia, I would probably be engaged in the political process in a way that was an unhealthy mix of politics and religion.<\/p>\n

I believe that pastors should be involved in the electoral process, but they should leave politics outside the sanctuary. In Virginia, one of the lay leaders in the church (he taught Sunday School and was our head usher) also happened to be the Chairman of the Democrat Party of Buchanan County. It was in his capacity as Chairman that he asked his pastor — me — to give the invocation at the Democrat Rally that was held the Sunday prior to Election Day. On at least three occasions, I was able to do just that, praying for the safety and well-being of the candidates — most of whom were already in elective office. Even though I only ended up voting for one of the Democrat candidates, I was nonetheless honored to take part in the political process. Of course, these rallies were at the local high school auditorium, not in the sanctuary of a local church. Big difference.<\/p>\n

Should we pray for our leaders? Absolutely. The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament book of First Timothy, instructs the church to do just that. But, I don’t believe that Paul (or our Baptist forebearers) would instruct us to\u00a0parade candidates onto the sanctuary platform during Sunday morning worship services to “pray”<\/em> that “God’s will be done,”<\/em> especially when the election is two days away. But, that’s exactly what occurred\u00a0in the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, TN, where Pastor Steve Gaines, who succeeded the late Adrian Rogers,\u00a0invited Rick Santorum to come up on the platform during the 9:20 a.m. WORSHIP SERVICE to pray for the GOP candidate<\/a>. If Mr. Santorum or Mr. Gingrich, both Roman Catholics (although Gingrich was a Southern Baptist who converted\u00a0after his marriage to his THIRD wife <\/a>— can anyone say Family Values?), were in the habit of frequenting Baptist churches at times other than days before an election in which they are vying for the Presidential nomination, then we might be inclined to give them a pass.<\/p>\n

However, it is hard to take seriously the words of Dr. Gaines as reported in Associated Baptist Press<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Describing the opportunity to the 11 a.m. service, Gaines said the church is not Democratic, Republican or Independent. \u201cWe didn\u2019t pray that he would win,\u201d Gaines told the congregation. \u201cWe just prayed that God\u2019s will be done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It should go without saying that the church is not “Democratic, Republican or Independent.”<\/em> And,\u00a0was it even necessary for Pastor Gaines to pray that Mr. Santorum\u00a0would win? I think any intelligent person attending the 9:20 a.m. Worship Service at Bellevue this past Sunday would have a pretty good idea of what the answer to that question is. Oh, and I’m quite sure that Steve Gaines will invite President Obama to join him on the platform at the next available opportunity.<\/p>\n

When prominent churches like Bellevue and First\u00a0Redeemer — both SBC megachurches — offer their sanctuaries and worship services for nothing\u00a0more than shameless stops on the campaign trail<\/a>,\u00a0then “Houston, we have a problem!” <\/em>Maybe I have an old-fashioned sense of right and wrong when it comes to injecting politics — and politicians — into our churches. Am I off base? Does this overt politicization of our churches, particularly during times of worship, offend your sensibilities? What say you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what used to be confined to mostly Democrat, mostly African-American congregations, the politicization of the sanctuary has come to conservative, Republican-leaning\u00a0megachurches near you. During this year’s Republican Presidential campaign, it seems that the Mormon\u00a0Roman Catholic candidates have\u00a0found a welcoming environment during Sunday morning\u00a0worship at several prominent Southern Baptist megachurches in the south. If the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1627,1628,34,35,37],"tags":[1785,63,1375,1779,1782,1784,1783,302,303,439,721,1781,3391,830,1640,1445,1336,853,868,3393,1780,1786,1031,1055],"class_list":["post-3282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mega-fridays","category-megachurch","category-politics","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-1984-presidential-election","tag-adrian-rogers","tag-baptist-principles","tag-bellevue-baptist-church","tag-buchanan-county","tag-campaign-rally","tag-campaign-stop","tag-democrat-party","tag-democrats","tag-george-washington-university","tag-newt-gingrich","tag-politicization","tag-politics","tag-republican-presidential-candidates","tag-republican-presidential-primary","tag-republicans","tag-rick-santorum","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-sbc","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-steve-gaines","tag-sw-virginia","tag-virginia","tag-worship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-QW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3282"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}