Pastors preaching politcs

Churches can lose their 5013c letter but they cannot lose their tax exempt status.Anyway they should preach it all!

 

We should give up the tax advantages and just preach the Word. We cannot avoid political issues. They are a matter of life. Our people need to know what God says about homosexuality, war, money, etc and all these things should impact how we vote.

 

We do not have to give up the tax exemption to preach it all and its not even possible to lose it.

 

We should be able to preach the whole counsel of God without the fear of the tax exemption status. With that said, I do not believe we should endorse any particular candidate from the pulpit, but should be able to say what each one stands for to educate the congregation.

 

That was interesting. I did not know that in the USA if the preacher spoke about politics there was the tax stick to whack him with.

Certainly,the RCC has done so in the past....there was a Melbourne Irish firebrand who was very pro the worker and did not hesitate to let the world know. This was around the 1920/1930s I think, Australia had a pretty tough time with the Depression.

At my church, politics is almost never a topic from the pulpit. If a moral issue is headline news, it is sometimes reitterated what the RCC teaching is on it.

I was astounded when we had a national election last year when one of the priests did speak aboiut the impending election. It was so unprecedented. Apparently a number of the congregation walked out.....also astounding. What it was all about I cannot recall...I doubt the government whacked him with a tax stick as I am pretty sure their yearly incomes don't hit the minimum threshold. He possibly had a little talk from his superior but I really don't know.

 

The contributors could lose their deductions.

 

So what. Most people aren't giving anyways.

 

UH no they can't.

 

Money ought not to be a consideration in the pastors preaching. It ought to be only "does the Bible say this?" This is true whether it is about politics or about raising the budget.

 

It needs to be defined what "preaching politics" means. Yes, homosexuality cross into the political arena and should be discussed openly...but I don't want my pastor talking about how to solve unemployment issues, tax rates, foreign relations government budgets / national debt, etc. That is not the purpose of the pastorate.

 

Why not? If God saw fit to tell us what He thinks about such things, and it is part of the pastor's job to relay that information, then why would we put such limits on them?

 

He already did "give to Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's".

You need to show me biblicly something more than that proving discipleship includes that which I mentioned above.

 

The Gospel should impact every aspect of our lives. That is why God spoke of how we are to live in whatever state we happen to be in. He gives us instruction on how to live as husbands, masters, servants, children, mother, wife, and father. His teaching on how to live under a government goes beyond paying taxes. In His Word we also find what He has to say about murder, conducting business, borrowing stuff and money.

Read 1 Peter lately? Or Ephesians? Have you noticed the political and social state of Israel and Judah that was being addressed in Isaiah?

 

Israel and Judah were theocracies. America is not. I agree that the Bible should govern our lives, but the job description of an elder is not political. He should not tell us what kind of house to buy, what kind of car to drive, whether we should recycle, etc. Not all aspects of politics are spiritual matters, and he should not be using his position or the pulpit to mandate his own political ideals that Scripture is silent on.

 

An elder is to be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. That means the whole Word. Therefore we are to teach and preach what God says about all those things. One of the important parts of this process is to explain how those timeless truths apply in our context. It requires that we address them, not ignore them.

Everything is spiritual.

I am not advocating a political agenda. I am not advocating telling people what vehicle to buy or what house to get or to recycle. I am advocating a faithful teaching of the whole counsel of God's Word. Those decisions must be informed by God as He does, at a minimum, gives us guiding principals that can be applied to those decisions.

When someone comes to me to seek guidance concerning a major decision I am going to ask them if they have been praying about. I will also be asking if they have spent time in the Word. I will be establishing if they are faithfully seeking God's direction. I want to know what verses and biblical principals they are applying in this process. If they do not know then it is my privilege, and my God-ordained responsibility, to point them towards God and His Word. If I am faithful in preaching these things from the pulpit the people are better prepared to make these decisions and they will know when God says firm things about an issue or whether its something left to conscience. In the case of freedom in Christ to choose they still need to know the principals, for example financial stewardship, that apply.

To deny this is to deny the faithfulness and sufficiency of God and His Word.

 

Black preachers preach politics all of the time and endorse candidates. Look at Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, et al. It's been going on for years, seems there must be a double standard if white preachers cannot do it without a tax ramification.

 

I am not sure if I want to hear it.