THE BLURRY LINE BETWEEN RELIGION AND POLITICS

Most clergy are respectful of the widely agreed upon distinction between religion and politics, especially during an election year.  We agree that it is not my right, regardless of a “bully pulpit,” to tell others what candidate they should vote for.  But we are not in an election year, and most clergy, as they did during the pre-Dobbs, Roe v. Wade years, are steering so far clear of commenting on policy decisions of the present political administration that they could be viewed as condoning decisions which, by any Christian standard, should be seen as egregious affronts to the way we put into practice what Jesus taught us.  As a nation, we stand poised to enact the President’s agenda, all wrapped up in “one beautiful bill,” but there is nothing “beautiful” about it.  The President, and his MAGA followers, would have us believe that he has a “mandate” from the people to do all the outrageous things he has been doing!  Mr. President, a 1% margin does not a mandate make, and for all those standing with the other half of the country we must make our voices heard.

This is precisely where the line between politics and religion is very blurred, for it not only allows clergy to speak out from the pulpit, but our faith encourages us to speak out from the pulpit.  It is not electioneering to boldly stand up for what is right and call out policies which will have a grievously negative effect on the poor and disenfranchised, the very group which the gospels tell us we should have a predisposition for.  Sadly, standing up for what is right is not going to win anyone kudos from the MAGA crowd, for they have been inoculated with lies and falsehoods which make them immune from caring.  The theory appears to be that if cuts are needed to make the budget more acceptable to the masses, then make the cuts to the poor who won’t even notice.  The poor are generally accustomed to being taken advantage of; they will buckle under if they have to!

Clergy cannot, should not, remain silent in the face of what is categorically evil.  The measure of our speech should primarily be measured by the gospel, but it can also be measured by the previous administration’s policies which give the gospels a face, and which truly promote the common good of every person.

I recently was given a paperback book entitled, Living in the Daze of Deception: How to discern Truth from Culture’s Lies.  The book is written by evangelical pastor Jack Hibbs, the founding pastor of a Church in California and described as “the host of a nationally syndicated TV and radio program Real Life.”  As the blind chicken sometimes gets a kernel of corn, Pastor Hibbs sometimes says profound truths, like “we live in a time when falsehoods assault us from every direction.  Packaged with just enough truth to make them appear trustworthy, these counterfeits have grown more and more difficult to detect and avoid.”

We must be sure to remember that there is much that distinguishes us from our evangelical friends.  Pastor Hibbs is a true fundamentalist, believing in the literal truth of Scripture.  Hibbs disparages “once-solid Christian universities, colleges, and seminaries that are promoting popular courses that teach the Bible through literary devices.”  (The very best courses I ever attended in Scripture in seminary were at Harvard University.)  Hibbs’ almost humorous defense of a literal reading of Genesis  has him going to great pains to prove that “the Bible makes it clear that serpents in the Garden of Eden could stand erect – not to mention talk!”  We too believe in the truth of Scripture, but the truths are revealed to us through the tradition of the church which tells us the Word of God is inspired.  With the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu the Catholic Church came to accept the kind of biblical studies promoted by the great Protestant German scholars of the twentieth century.

Hibbs’ greatest criticism of other churches comes when he suggests that they “have pivoted toward a social gospel, a distorted gospel, a woke gospel that is anything but the gospel.  Woke is a modern term that should never apply to any church because it refers to a progressive ideology based on perceived social injustices and prejudices (MAGA would be proud of Hibbs) regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation.”  Elsewhere Hibbs states “the attacks on sound doctrine leave behind churches that are more passionate about Black Lives Matter and feminism than the bedrock of the word of God.  They care more about social justice than God’s judgment and the gospel that saves mankind from it.”  Would that the present administration care more about “about social justice.”  Indeed, the gospel is about social justice!  To truly love one’s neighbor leads to social justice!

Only a few days into his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV, or someone with insight (quote alleged to be a meme),  boldly and knowingly stepped into the world of politics by stating:

“TO BE CALLED ‘WOKE’ IN A WORLD THAT SLEEPS THROUGH SUFFERING IS NO INSULT —

IT IS GOSPEL. WOKE MEANS AWAKENED BY COMPASSION. GUIDED BY TRUTH. HUMBLED BY GRACE. COMMITTED TO JUSTICE – NOT JUST FOR SOME, BUT FOR ALL. SO LET THEM MOCK.LET THEM SNEER. WE WILL STILL BUILD THE KINGDOM – NOT WITH WALLS, BUT WITH LOVE. BE AWAKE. BE LOVING. BE WOKE!” (Anonymous)

It is more than interesting that someone chose to write these words.  I believe the person set himself as the model of who we should be, and what we should do.  We need to repurpose the words that the far left have bastardized in order to label and demean programs of or related to social justice.  The repurposing of “WOKE” by whoever, can, and should also be done with the words of DEI – diversity, equity, inclusion.  In the context of the gospel, who could argue that the words themselves represent something that is bad, and wrong.  The programs that are being canceled in these great United States, are being canceled because they are considered too DEI, too Woke.  Might Jesus be appalled that words which provide us with noble goals are being used to cause such great harm, “all to make America rich again.”  Funding for programs for the CDC, USAID, NIH, Snap programs, University research programs, and  programs which give access to the poorest of the poor to the privileges that so many of us enjoy.

All peoples of good will should speak out, and speak out loudly, that the country we once lived in is fading away.  When people are denied their rights (due process), when foreign university students are disappearing into the night, when plane loads of people are transported to a foreign Gulag under the pretense of solving our immigration issues which Congress didn’t have the courage to solve in a decent way which respected all people’s rights – when these things happen, they tear at the very fabric of who we are.  We, regardless of our political party, cannot allow a maniacal would be dictator to take us in a direction we do not want to go.  It is time to speak out.