Too Much Politics?

Lately I’ve heard rumblings about how mainline pastors are talking too much about politics. I must be reading and listening to a different set of pastors – and these days you have an overwhelming wealth of options online to choose from – but I don’t hear outright political messages. I hear messages against the cruelty of the current American administration. I hear messages about protecting families from unlawful separation and detention. I hear messages about safeguarding funding for charities. I hear calls to work for the poor, the immigrant and the imprisoned. This isn’t politics, this is the most basic form of Christianity.

I’ve yet to see a MAGA supporter say anything remotely Christian, but if they do, I’m sure your pastors will mention it. In the meantime, what MAGA supporters are saying is directly antithetical to our faith. The Bible demands that we welcome the foreigner. MAGA seems unified in their mistrust of all immigrants, but especially people of color. Jesus refuses to elevate the wealthy and instead welcomes and includes the marginalized. MAGA supporters seem to idolize wealth. Trump has eliminated aid and relief funds, pulled workers out of Myanmar, literally ruined the lives of thousands of innocent immigrants through illegal suspension of due process and his rhetoric only sows division.

If your pastor is reminding you of Jesus’ own words, and you hear what you think is a partisan, political speech, then the problem is you and your frame of mind, not that of the mainline pastor. If your pastor is reminding you that you don’t serve wealth, but instead you are called to serve others regardless of lines on a map, you need to listen up. If you hear a message that criticizes how Trump et al are treating immigrant families and you assume it’s tribal politics, as opposed to preaching Christian values, I invite you to seriously reflect on what is influencing your value system. Are you worshipping Christ or are you more concerned with asserting American exceptionalism through Christian nationalism? Are you so connected to your political ideology that you cannot be shaped by the words of your Lord?

Christian nationalism is on the rise in America. While it seeks to assert that America is a Christian nation – absolute fiction by any standard – it also comes with some unsightly, un-American and anti-Christian baggage like racism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, rejection of democracy and suppression of dissent. In short, fear and idolatry. Accusing your pastor of preaching politics is right out of the authoritarian playbook. Authoritarians stifle Christian truth by calling it something else, in this case they’re calling it progressive politics. I don’t doubt some pastors abuse their pulpits for profit, politics and worse. But when you hear a sermon preached on the call of Christ during a time of fascist ascendancy, you should heed the call. Additionally if your pastor is in fact simply responding to the flood of political action all around them and feels it is their duty to preach on the applicable lectionary text, you should be glad you have one of the good ones.

It’s easy to understand why the rich and powerful want you to embrace a new kind of Christianity. Our faith is a threat to them. Our faith has always been about siding with the oppressed, the poor, the marginalized and the outcast. Our faith stands in direct opposition to a wealthy oligarchy. So, what is the best way to defuse such a powerful faith that speaks truth to the powerful? Absorb it into the dominant cultural script. Turn a faith that tells you to sell everything you own and give it to the poor into a faith that tells you how to become comfortably rich. Turn a faith that says welcome the stranger into a faith that says you need to protect your interests against the interests of other people. Turn a faith that says fear not into a faith that says fear everything. Christian nationalism is not about Christ or the nation, it’s about removing the biggest threat to the structure of power there is: Christ.

So much for the rich and powerful. Why are ordinary people embracing this perverted and fascist false Christianity? First, I think we’re in a unique period of fear and insecurity. We’ve just come out of a pandemic. Inflation is high, opportunities are low, and the wealth gap is larger than ever. When you feel under threat, it is human nature to latch onto any message that gives you a sense of security and identity. And identity often comes at the expense of others. The rise of news channels and social media echo chambers amplify these ideologies. Let’s face it, we don’t want to hear Christ telling us to sell everything or to welcome the stranger. That sounds scary. We’d rather believe that Christianity could be an easy path. So, when misguided nationalists conflate Christianity with fascism, we gravitate there and reinforce these ideologies.

It’s easier to complain about your pastor and their so-called politics than to bear a painful fact: You cannot support today’s Republican party and call yourself a Christian. The rise of authoritarianism – not to mention outright cruelty – by the American right is directly opposed to the tenets of the Christian faith. I’m not saying you need to join the Democrats, you just need to abandon the party that worships wealth and cruelty.

In Matthew 20:16, Jesus says, ^“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Fox News may tell you it means that saying, “Merry Christmas,” is under attack or that your “right,” to discriminate against rainbow wedding cakes, DEI and bathroom usage is under attack. Oh, you poor, rich, white, straight CIS-gendered American. You feel like you’re under attack and are being placed last, so Fox News assures you that you will again be first. Wrong. We are all first in America and we shall all be last. We are all racists because we participate in a racist society founded by racists with slavery built into the constitution. We are all the camels stuck in the eyes of all the needles. If your pastor reminds you that the first shall be last and vice versa, that Christ calls us to humility and service, that hierarchies are inverted in the Kingdom of God by Christ not by DOGE, that we are to side with the marginalized and oppressed, that is preaching God’s Word. Unfortunately, these values are directly opposed to the values of Christian nationalism – hierarchy, heredity, advantage, ethnicity, nationalism – and so preaching God’s Word today means standing against the right wing in America.

In Matthew 25:35, Jesus says, “…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” Welcoming the stranger is equal to welcoming your Lord. Let that sink in. Anything we are doing to our immigrants, regardless of their legal status, we are doing to our Lord and savior. This is more than a simple call to hospitality, compassion and inclusivity. Jesus is telling you how to relate to Him by relating to the immigrant and the oppressed. Protecting the immigrant is not a left-wing political position, it is a Christian duty to Christ Himself. I want to be clear that I, too, agree that our immigration system is broken in many places. But this calls for reform, along with love and compassion, not militarization and certainly not illegally “disappearing,” humans into El Salvador’s worst hell holes. Trump has said that immigrants are, “vermin,” who are poisoning our blood, something we’ve only heard out of Nazi Germany. Do you hear those words you Christians? Trump is naming the stranger in your land and thus naming your very Lord, “vermin.” Trump is saying that strangers and thus Christ and by extension Christ’s church is poisoning our blood. If you stand for the jailing and deportation of people, especially those being sent to jails in Guantanamo or El Salvador with no right to due process, you have done this to Christ Himself. You are a failure as a Christian.

I could go on forever about loving your neighbor, servant leadership, justice and mercy, humility and more. But what’s the point? If you’re following Christ, then you’re not hearing politics in the pulpit, you’re hearing His words being preached by our modern-day prophets. If you are following Trump, you are lost and no more words will save you. If you are a Christian who is an ICE agent, you must resign. If you are a Republican, you must leave the party. This is not politics; this is living the faith.

Matthew 25:40-46

And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”

Meanwhile, what are the rest of us who still follow Christ above all left to do? Encourage your pastor to preach more, not less. They need your support now more than ever. We need their voice now more than ever. We fight this with real theology – that means an inclusive theology that prioritizes love, justice and compassion over nationalism and exclusion. We need to add our voices to those of our pastors, they cannot do this alone. Only groups of people can bridge the divides between groups of people. You need to take civic action. Protest. Educate. Advocate. Volunteer. Challenge hypocrisy, imperialism, extremism and discrimination in every form. And along the way, remember to also treat those who have lost their way with compassion and mercy. Mercy includes calls for them to repent. Address the fear that drives them in ways that is more alluring than Christian nationalism or right-wing ideology. It is still an amazing fact of history that a poor, wandering Jewish handyman went to His death in the middle of an imperial regime and in so doing, made a group of followers put the last in society first in their hearts. This message wins lives.