Church as political organization?!

The church tries to do the right thing.  On the one hand, we have what we think is God's will, and on the other, we have the world to contend with.  Trying to correctly interpret the former is difficult, but not as difficult as trying to predict the latter.

Case in point.  After President Trump's executive order stopping refugees and travelers for different periods of time from 7 Muslim-majority countries, several religious organizations wrote letters in protest of the move.  I tried to describe the rationale for such public protest from the perspective of the Lutheran church in my last blog post.  I tried to address my post to the concerns of those who might feel that such protest by the church is inappropriate, a violation of church/state boundaries, or simply political meddling.  I explained that the church tries not to participate in political posturing, but does reserve the right to publicly testify to its vision of God's will for the world, especially as it pertains to the treatment of other, more vulnerable people. This is the church's "prophetic voice" that it is obligated to heed.  And it tries to keep that voice unsullied by overt partisan affiliations.

Then President Trump did this.  At the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, he vowed to get rid of the Johnson Amendment, which prevents religious organizations that receive tax-free status from publicly endorsing politicians.  That's right.  Such a move would give churches more leeway to work on behalf of political parties and politicians, while keeping their tax-free status.  (Some would argue that all churches should lose their tax-exempt status, but that's a topic for another post.)  Moreover, as Steve Waldman writes, Americans' tax dollars could be spent to support churches, synagogues or mosques that support political candidates that they would never support themselves.

Will it happen?  I've stopped trying to predict what will happen in our country right now.  But it would certainly be a bad idea.  Letting churches become defacto political organizations would certainly jeopardize the separation of church and state, and confuse the public even more about what we believe is the proper distinction between what the world does and how God sees it. The Lutheran church would definitely be against such a move.  Not because it wouldn't want to help create political change.  On the contrary, the church is called to get involved in the messiness of the world.  Christians are called to pay attention, to pray, to participate, to vote, to picket, to protest, whatever the Holy Spirit seems to be inspiring in their hearts.  And yes, the church is willing to do this, even if it risks the impression of inappropriate meddling, so that it might bear prophetic witness to its interpretation of God's will for this messed up world.  We can't keep the church out of politics totally because it has a God-given role to play, but we can and should keep politics out of the church.  Thanks for reading.