Cliff has an interesting response to Gushee's seventeen rules. Go and read the blog. Essentially, it boils down to freedom of speech. Are church leaders free to speak? Do we lose our rights to speak when we become ordained leaders? Is the government worried about our influence? Perhaps. But I promise you that the local leader of the teachers' union has a larger constituency than I do and thus a more powerful influence. Is that person hindered? Heck no. Politicians court them. Does this cause problems? Sure. Special interest groups run our government. Well, that is a perceived problem at least.
So, do congregations want to be special interest groups? Are they already? I think that they are, but there is something in our government's DNA that fears the church. The separation of church and state is a great and necessary idea. But is the church supposed to be hindered then in all public dialogue? Discouraged? Excluded? Perhaps that is the best. But then we create a second class citizenry in this country. And that is simply unlawful.
Unless of course Gushee has his way. Then he has done the government's work for it. Gushee is saying that Christians are naturally second class citizens, unable to choose candidates in a public religious forum.
Now, there are all kinds of questions of bringing political candidates into the pulpit during the worship service. A worship service is not a political rally. So, I have liturgical issues with the practice. But bringing candidates into churches at coffee hour, and churches choosing to support political candidates makes sense to me. Why not?
Anyway...there you go, some beginning thoughts about this. I am going to try to have some adult education options before the Primary elections this winter. I think that this is the kind of thing that congregations need to better understand. Our assumptions are too vague...ill-informed.
Posted by tripp at July 12, 2007 05:41 PMwatch out for the irs and the church's tax exempt status...as i understand the argument, if churches paid taxes we could take a stand in politics and support specific candidates. its our tax exempt status that prevents this. i think donna schaper wrote about this in one of the recent editions of Progressive Christianity...not sure i like having my "voice" tied to taxes...
Posted by: mompriest at July 13, 2007 10:09 PMMompriest, that's kind of the whole problem. The law suggests that any NPO is tied the same way. Catholic Charities (assuming they are NPO) and your local YWCA are hindered because of their NPO status. It is the flipside to taxation without representation. If you don't want to be taxed, don't expect representation. If you want representation, expect to pay for it with your taxes.
As you well know, we pastors are taxed. And as individual citizens we can vote and debate. But on behalf of the institution, our hands are tied.
Posted by: Tripp at July 14, 2007 07:17 AM