I heard that last weekend a number of pastors were going to challenge the IRS law and stand in their pulpits and tell people who to vote for in the presidential election. It was called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.”
I would never abuse the pulpit or insult my listeners and tell them who to vote for. The pulpit is a place to:
- Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ
- Teach the doctrines of the faith
- Admonish the slackers
- Comfort the hurting
- Raise the dead
- Remind the faithful
- Equip the ministers
- Speak truth through personality
- Let the Word of God be the focus
- And try and do it all in as short a time as is possible!
Yesterday one person called me to say that they hadn’t decided whether to vote at all in this election. Neither candidate motivated them to go to the voting booth this time around. “Is that wrong?” they asked. “Follow your conscience and pray about it,” I said.
Right or wrong – the person is stepping out of their power to be involved in the election of the next president. Pretty safe place when you can say in a year, when the country is looking like a pumpkin that’s been through a few frosts, “Well, I didn’t vote for him.”
And I am not saying who I am voting for on this blog of mine. You can try and guess. And some of you know by now the direction I lean on social and political issues. And I know some of yours which makes it easier to discuss these things in settings outside a church sanctuary or a Rev’s blog.
On Sunday I’ll stick to preaching. You do the voting.
Amen, especially the last point!
with infinite hope, Jim