by Ray Keating
The Keating Files – March 9, 2021
Author’s Note: The more things change, the more they stay the same. The debate about religion and politics has raged on for centuries; and in the U.S., many of the details can stay remarkably consistent over years or even decades. The following column, which is included in my book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York (2020), first appeared in Newsday in October 2004. John Kerry is mentioned, but one can easily replace his name with “Joe Biden.” However, added to the story in more recent times would be the descent among certain factions within “conservative” Christianity into a bizarre quasi-worship of Donald Trump, including a defend-him-no-matter-what-he-does-or-says lack of discernment. In the end, as explained below, politics is not supposed to inform the Church. To the contrary, the Church primarily should be focused on teaching the world and the faithful, who then, with informed consciences, engage the political arena. Fortunately, at the time of this writing, I was able to interview three well-reasoned members of the clergy, including the now-late Father Richard John Neuhaus.
Mixing religion and politics can spark controversy. Nonetheless, church leaders have a moral obligation to speak out on certain issues. So, faith and politics will, at times, intersect. But what constitutes the church’s proper role?
Consider two recent examples. As Newsday reported last week, Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton appeared with Democrat John Kerry at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Miami, Florida. Some 300 parishioners, flapping “Kerry-Edwards” fans, were urged to vote for the Massachusetts senator.
Meanwhile, various Roman Catholic bishops have raised questions about the moral legitimacy of voting for a candidate favoring abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Kerry, who is a Catholic, has a staunchly pro- abortion record, and calls for significant taxpayer funding for the kind of stem cell research that destroys human embryos.
I spoke with three local members of the clergy last week – one Lutheran, one Anglican and one Catholic. Each offered remarkably similar assessments on the church’s appropriate place in the public square.
Pastor John Fleischmann of Christ Lutheran Church in East Moriches noted that the church’s job is to be “clear about things the Scripture says are right and wrong.” The Rev. Randolph Jon Geminder, an Anglican priest at St. Mary’s Church in Amityville, declared: “All we can do is exhort our people to implement the moral teachings that we’ve given them when they make an informed choice.”
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus is a Catholic priest, editor-in-chief of First Things magazine located in New York City, and has written extensively on the church and politics. He agreed: “The responsibility of the church is to encourage and educate its own people with respect to the great moral questions of our time. Then it is up to the people to reflect upon this and to form their conscience according to the truth taught by the church and then to act” in the political arena.
Each also saw risks of getting too political. Father Geminder noted that by getting “so wrapped up in the minutiae of politics, we can lose our entire focus of why we’re here.” Father Neuhaus worried about compromising “the moral integrity of religion when you hitch it to a very specific partisan agenda.”
A candidate speaking from the pulpit and distributing campaign materials in church clearly rank as partisan, and the church risks being cheapened.
What about the issues? Holy Scripture, church teachings and moral reason clearly support speaking out strongly against abortion, human embryonic stem cell research and cloning, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage. These are foundational, biblical values for which there should be little or no room for disagreement within Christianity.
Other issues have significant moral implications, but people of good conscience can disagree. For example, some Christians oppose the death penalty, while others note that it is allowed in both the Old and New Testaments. War also can split views among people of faith.
Meanwhile, some churches make proclamations or lobby on issues distant from their mission and where they lack expertise. For example, churches embracing “social justice” or the “social gospel” often will use broad biblical declarations to endorse a very specific liberal, secular agenda, including a higher minimum wage, antitrust regulation, Medicare, Medicaid, climate issues, affirmative action, or even Internet access. Such going astray can weaken the church’s moral authority when it’s truly needed.
In the end, the Christian Church’s mission is as Jesus commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Perhaps some of the churches or clergy who enthusiastically embrace a secular political agenda simply find this “Great Commission” uninteresting or unconvincing – a disturbing and distressing thought. For Christians, as Pastor Fleischmann observed, the Gospel informs politics, not the other way around.
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Ray Keating is a columnist, novelist, economist, podcaster and entrepreneur. Keating has two new books out. Vatican Shadows: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel is the 13ththriller/mystery in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Get the paperback or Kindle edition at Amazon, or signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com. Past Lives: A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story is the 14th book in the series. Get the paperback or Kindle edition at Amazon, or signed book at www.raykeatingonline.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
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