Blog from the Capital

World Magazine profiles the recent dispute over politics in the pulpit, quoting the Baptist Joint Committee's Brent Walker in noting the Supreme Court has not found tax exemption to be a right. Another important point was made by Stan Hastey of the Alliance of Baptists:

He said, "I think that, at least in a Baptist context, it is toxic, it is absolutely toxic to endorse a candidate."

Hastey said if he were to have endorsed a candidate during a recent speaking engagement at a church in D.C., half of the congregation would have gotten up and walked out, no matter who he endorsed: "It would poison relationships between members of this church for months if not years to come. I think it is absolutely an abuse of pastoral authority to stand up in a church and endorse a candidate. . . . I can't think of anything that is more theologically bankrupt than to abuse the pastoral vocation in that way."

This is an essential concern that can get a bit lost in all the discussion of legalities. Brent has said it also during this debate, that “In every church I know of it would be like setting off a bomb shell in the sanctuary for the preacher to tell the congregants how to pull the lever in the voting booth.....It would be incredibly corrosive of the church’s true mission to spread the gospel and be salt and light in the culture."