Should churches be apolitical?

Back in the 90s I remember clearcut political positions advocated by Christians and Pastors alike. I believe this was even more common in the 80s. Today I'm noticing a different approach, where churches avoid political talk at all costs in order to avoid offense. Is this a wise approach? Is politics in the realm of spirituality? Can politics be separated from morality?

I'm of the opinion, this needs to be rethought. I think pastors should be open about their politics and allow their congregations to judge them accordingly. I visited a church a few years ago and spoke to a teaching elder on staff who informed me he believed Christians should vote for gay marriage. And it was a fairly conservative church. My guess is, the other leadership didn't know about this political views, being they didn't like to talk politics. Perhaps this is the cost of taking an apolitical stand. You get infiltrated by confused Christians and even wolves.

I'd like to see a return to political conservatism in churches, particularly on issues that matter like life and religious freedom, and even on other issues like globalism, which is mentioned a lot in Scripture. I don't see how we can separate morality from politics. Will it offend? Heck yeah. Truth often does.

 

I know a conservative church that actually passed out voter guides to members that wanted them. Is that acceptable? But then suddenly they dropped it. Not sure why.

Pastors definitely do it though. Look at Pastor Jeffress endorsing Trump. In fact John MacArthur said he was voting for Trump. It does happen. I don't see why it's a problem. If candidates give out their platform and one is moral the other immoral, why not make the endorsement?

 

Well yeah, like the injustice of slaughtering the unborn. Stand up for it. But why not stand up also for candidates that are standing up for it?

 

Which is definitely the prevailing sentiment. But should the Church also ignore immoral policies?

For instance, the Church was at the forefront of the abolitionist movement in America. This was highly political. Was this a mistake? Should they have stayed out of it?

 

But how do you separate the two? if you are standing for justice and one candidate is standing on that same issue, is that not political? If you're pro life, and a vote is coming up that will impact the issue, are you not advocating a political position?

Back in the day, I remember Churches were very vocal about this. They preached issues and encouraged their members to support those who supported those issues. They were political.

 

But isn't justice a political issue at times?

 

I totally agree, I wouldn't want the pulpit turned into a political ad, nor a large or even small percentage of the time spent on politics. But should a Church be known as apolitical? Should our official position be, 'politics don't matter'? Abortion, gay marriage not an issue. Christians can and should vote for these if they want to. The Church is a safe zone where these things are never spoken of.

That seems to be the modern Church attitude. That's the part that concerns me.

 

Oh I have too. But a few years ago when we were visiting Churches, I noticed a few interesting things. At one Church the pastor explicitly told members not to talk about things like abortion because it might discourage democrats from visiting. He wanted the Church to be apolitical to maximize appeal to the world. I get the reasoning, but disagree as I think this is, in a sense, also being amoral. You can't just ignore wickedness to attract the wicked.

Also, back in the day I used to hear the Supreme Court discussed often. Today, during this election cycle, I heard nothing on the subject. I thought it to be very strange since the Supreme Court is everything in regard to this issue. Yet I heard nothing among the popular Christian leaders that were opposing Trump. Suddenly, the Supreme Court didn't matter to them.