It is so hard to pick one…

Recently, I been search about the topic and view on church and politic. The reason behind it, is because I feel church in our society pour in more politic and social issue topic to then church then it should be. While I was doing my research, an event shows up and caught my attention. Few days before September 25, 2016, there was two more police shooting that left two black people dead and thousands protesting in Tulsa and Charlotte. Couple days later, a pastor name Lentz from Hillsong’t NYC campuses wrote a short message on Twitter, and he said

“At THIS church, we are not saying ‘all lives matter’ right now because this is a logical assumption that most reasonable people agree with. All lives are not at risk right not. We ARE saying BLACK LIVES MATTER. Because, right not, black lives apparently are worth LESS on our streets. It’s “our fight” not “their fight”.” (Chris Enloe)

This is only one fact from many, and of course, there are many manifesto like this within other church.

Many of us who attendant to Sunday morning worship service might not realize that it is getting harder and harder for us as Christians to freely worship God without any interference. Yet, if we use communication model to describe the interference, and that would be noise around the communication process. As a result of noise is disturbing and affecting the efficacy of communication between both parties. On the other hand, the church congregation could easily overcome the visible noise, for instance, the noise from people, transportation, and so on. But, at same time it is hard for them to overcome the invisible noise. This might include issues from our society, and politic involvement either from church itself or different politics parties.

As we think about church as a physical building, we will think about it is a place let congregation gathering together to worship, and learning about the truth from the Word of God. Yet, as time goes by, the attributes or characteristic of church are gradually change from a place to worship to a place for people to discuss about politics or other social issues. Hearing about politics or other social issues during Sunday morning worship services it is kind of normal. Yet, when the big even happened, church would talk more about that certain issues in the church. From my personal view, worship services now are more like a quell public anger service, but only difference is churches are borrowing God’s name instead pastors’ name to address these issues. On the other side, some of politicians are trying to win the favor from Christians.

A statistic from Pew Research Center shows that many Christian believers in America hear politics from the church. In the survey shows

“about two-thirds (64%) say they heard clergy at their church or other place of worship speak about at least on of the six social and political issues mentioned in the survey, with nearly half (46%) indicating that religious leaders had spoken out on multiple issues. Fewer recent churchgoers (14%) say they heard their clergy speak directly in support of or against a specific presidential candidate in the months leading up to the survey. Black Protestants were particularly likely to hear this type message: Among black Protestants who have been in church recently, roughly three-in-ten (29%) have heard clergy speak out in support of a candidate, and an equal share have hear religious leaders speak out against a candidate.”

It is interesting that during 2016 campaign, church address more politic and social issues more then usual, from the survey says

“14% of those who attended religious services in the spring and early summer — say their clergy have spoken out in support of, or in opposition to, one of the presidential candidates during this campaign season. One-in ten (9%) say they have heard clergy speak out in support of a candidate, including 6% who say they heard support for Hillary Clinton and 1% who heard support for Donald Trump. A similar share of churchgoers (11%) say they have heard religious leaders speak out against a candidate, including 7% who say their clergy have come out in opposition to Trump and 4% who have heard opposition to Clinton.”

Also there are some of topic has been consistently addressed by clergy. For instance, topic like religious liberty, abortion, immigration, environmental issues, homosexuality, economic inequality and so on. About 49% churchgoers have heard their pastor speak out about religious tradition, and there is 46% of white evangelical, 35% of white mainline and 39% of black Protestants have heard their clergy speak out topic on homosexuality. (Pew Research Center)

From these surveys, needless to say, many church in our America society import politic and other social issues topic into church. But it is interesting that when I ask people from my school, I was surprisingly heard that no many of them hear about political issue in the church service.

So the question for us as Christians or churchgoers is do you think it is ok or acceptable for church to address political and other social issues in the church, especially during Sunday morning services? There are many voice and many view among our society. An article from Bruce Ashford who is Provost and Professor of theology and Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He offered two reason to us and also explained why church/religion and politics cannot be separated. First reason he has is our human beings are deeply and inescapably religious, and ‘religion’ cannot be defined restrictively as ‘the worship of a supernatural deity.’ And second reason is we cannot separate our private self from our public self (Ashford) Author made an interesting point, as a Christian, in reality, it is hard for us to separated from our society, and we are part of our society. However, I do think it is matter for us and for our church to think about the quantity of message we import into church.

Recently, I finished all of membership class in my church. During the class when we went through the constitution of the church, there is one statement was very conspicuous to me. The statement address and promise that church would fully believe God’s sovereignty. Therefore, my church leader and pastor will not address any political issues and social issues in the church and during Sunday morning worship service, and church will not have preference on either side of issues. Yet, my church would be praying for those issues among us. From this statement I’m thankful my church can give us a space to focus on worship our God.

I think there is a fine line between church and politics. Like Bruce Ashford said, we cannot separate ourselves from our public and our society. But as church and leaders in the church, I think it is their responsibility to recognize how much politic topic they should have in the church, especially during sunday morning services. But I would totally agree church should praying for those political issues and social issues around us.

Works Cited

Mitchell, Travis. “Many Americans Hear Politics From the Pulpit.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 8 Aug. 2016, www.pewforum.org/2016/08/08/many-americans-hear-politics-from-the-pulpit/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.

Roberts, Bryan. “7 Things Christians Need to Remember About Politics.” RELEVANT Magazine, 1 Feb. 2016, archives.relevantmagazine.com/current/politics/7-things-christians-need-remember-about-politics. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.

“Two Reasons Why Religion and Politics Cannot Be Separated.” Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, billygraham.org/story/two-reasons-why-religion-and-politics-cannot-be-separated/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.