North Carolina Christian Advocate, August 16, 2005

PUTTING POLITICS IN ITS PLACE

 by Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth

     The House of Delegates, of the North Carolina Council of Churches (NCCC), met on May 10 at the Lutheran Church of the Epiphany in Winston-Salem.  As usual, Rev. George Reed, the Executive Director of the NCCC, excelled in making sure that the entire meeting -- including the worship service, the program, the luncheon, and the business session -- ran like clockwork.  The United Methodist delegates in attendance were made particularly proud, during the luncheon, by the presentation of the NCCC’s Distinguished Service Award to The Reverend Joe Mann, of the North Carolina Conference and Duke Endowment.  The award recognizes that Rev. Mann’s ecumenical commitments run deep and wide.

     The Reverend Dr. James Dunn provided the sermon for the worship service and the lecture for the morning program.  With conviction seasoned by experience, he preached and lectured (including a question-and-answer period after the lecture).  Dr. Dunn is currently the Professor of Christianity and Public Policy at Wake Forest Divinity School in Winston-Salem.  For years, he had served as the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, DC.

     Dr. Dunn’s lecture was entitled “Two Things You Must Talk About: Politics and Religion.”  Not surprisingly, Dr. Dunn’s lecture followed the mandate of its title: it addressed politics and religion in a most straightforward way.  In addition, his sermon, which preceded his lecture, willingly engaged the politics of the day.

     The lecture and the sermon took sides in today’s arguments over politics, culture, and religion, which are sometimes called the “culture wars” (James Davison Hunter).  Again and again, on issue after issue, they sided with the progressives of our political sphere.  They repeatedly mentioned the “extremists on the Right.”  They questioned the intelligence of conservatives and Republicans, and spoke admiringly of Jim Wallis, Norman Lear, and People for the American Way.  They challenged the idea of “faith-based initiatives.”  The sermon asserted that the Religious Right had made “God a public mascot,” and evaluated the claim of “America’s Judeo-Christian heritage” as nothing but “political balderdash.”  And the lecture recalled a statement that conjectured, politically speaking, the United States of 2005 is near Germany of 1933.

     In general, the sermon and the lecture argued that the Religious Right and the Republicans are mistaken, misguided, and wrong in their politics and religion.  At the same time, the sermon and the lecture enthusiastically approved the Religious Left and the Democrats.  As stated earlier, these presentations vigorously took sides in the “culture wars.”

     (Three points of interest might be mentioned here.  First, very seldom, if ever, was the word liberal used during these presentations.  The word progressive was preferred.  One might wonder why.  Second, the sermon and the lecture advanced a set of political ideas that is most actively promoted in American political life by those with a clearly secularist agenda.  So if the Religious Right has its fundamentalists, the Religious Left is closely associated with secularists.  And third, during the program a political story was told.  A politico, several years ago, lamentably listed a large number of left-of-center United States Senators who would soon be gone from the Senate.  This comment was then offered with sadness and alarming foreboding: “The moral center of the United States Senate has changed...”  But of course, one might well reply.  “The moral center of the United States Senate” is always changing.  In fact, it changes every two years, every time congressional elections are held.  Furthermore, the Church’s public moral teaching is, or should be, much more stable and substantial and enduring than “the moral center of the United States Senate.”)

     A critical review of Dr. Dunn’s sermon and lecture would raise a few questions for extended response and even debate: Did this sermon and this lecture place American politics above Christian theology?  That is, did the politics of these presentations determine their theology?  And does the placement of American politics above Christian theology make the visible demonstration of Christian unity nearly impossible?

     Some on the Religious Right indeed appear to put their politics above their religion.  They are opposed by some on the Religious Left who do the same thing: they place their political concerns above their theological commitments.  What then follows are red-hot battles between the Religious Right and the Religious Left -- which include name calling, questioning of character, insinuating of ignorance, and other unpleasantries with which the American public is all too familiar.

     The challenge facing the North Carolina Council of Churches, the various denominations, the many congregations, and Christians -- but especially the NCCC, because of its ecumenical reason for being -- is to remember, and to live by, the truth that politics is not the most important thing in the world.  The Kingdom of God, revealed especially in Jesus Christ, is what is most important.  When and only when that is recalled, Christians can then engage in serious, respectful political discussion, even debate, that just might set an example in political discourse that could benefit the larger society.

     But the first step is to put politics in its place.  If that is not done, Christian disunity and political warfare will be sure to continue.

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Rev. Stallsworth is the pastor of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Morehead City, NC.

To respond to this article and continue the dialogue, please send your article to: St. Peter’s United Methodist Church/111 Hodges Street/Morehead City, NC 28557.