Monday, June 02, 2008

Dopes in the Pulpit

Instances of preachers gone mad have abounded in recent months. Dr. Jeremiah Wright certainly needs no introduction at this point. The Catholic priest who made a fool of himself, his church, and the Gospel has gained a good bit of coverage as well. In case you are among the few who haven't seen or heard these rants, the video is here.

Now a Bishop in the Church of England has decided that anyone who doesn't agree with Pope AlGore and his leading scientists like Michael Moore are at least as evil as the Austrian animal who kept his daughter locked up for decades, raping her and fathering numerous children with her. We are, he claims, robbing our children's future, and that makes us no better than Josef Fritzl. Can we talk?

Now preachers being involved in the political process are no new thing. In the history of the US, until Senator Lyndon B. Johnson put a stop to it, there were regular political sermons - even "Election Day Sermons." Not all were were off the ranting and raving variety that we are accustomed to seeing at YouTube recently, but not all have been sane, civil, and Biblically-based, either.

Let me make an appeal to preachers - and those who listen to them and may have some influence over them: Preach the Gospel. Yes, there are many moral issues that are intertwined with politics and we must address those. We should not be afraid of the IRS when we feel we must address social needs. But, we should never be hucksters for a particular candidate or party. Our preaching must be from God's Word, not our own agenda.

NOTE: If you are in the area around southern Maine on Sunday evenings in July (13,20,27), stop by to join in the discussion we will be having on "Church and State: Politics and the Pulpit in American Society.
" All are welcome. For info contact me directly.



3 comments:

Luke Geraty said...

Curt,

I'm curious how your "Discussion" sessions go. Do you just have an open floor discussion or do you preach/teach/lecture and then take questions or is there another format?

I'm interested. I wish I could attend your up and coming discussions on politics and the church. Great idea!

Curt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Curt said...

Luke,

generally speaking, I will introduce the topic with a lecture. That can go anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes. Then I open the floor wide for comments, discussion, complaints, rants, and the like. Our past topics have included such topics as "Is Faith Relevant?"; "War and Peace:" and "What it Means to Be a Man in the 21st Century." I guess you can imagine that some of those discussions got lively.

In my lectures I make no bones about my being thoroughly Christian and Reformed, at that. There is a lot of Scripture, even in the historical presentations.

We cannot use PowerPoint presentations there. No electricity; no plumbing!