The Danger of Mixing Religion and Politics

“I don’t know which makes me more uncomfortable: when preachers mix politics with religion or when politicians mix religion with politics—both are dangerous business!”
—Jimmy Peacock

“The last time we mixed religion with politics people were burned at the stake.”
—Bumper sticker seen recently in Sapulpa, Oklahoma

Over the past thirty-plus years that I have served as a primarily religious copyeditor I have been collecting and composing quotations and excerpts about religion and politics. However, since these topics have become so controversial—especially when linked together—I have refrained from posting any of these accumulated quotations and excerpts on my personal blog.

Now that I have virtually exhausted the other blog posts that I had prepared to be published over these past months, and since my health has deteriorated so that composing new posts has become increasingly difficult, recently I began to consider publishing many of these quotations and excerpts despite their controversial nature.

In the process of reviewing, considering, and praying for guidance in regard to these quotations and excerpts, I came to the point of seeking a sign from God on whether to publish them or not. That was when I saw the above-quoted bumper sticker as I was leaving church here in Sapulpa. The fact is that due to my rapidly failing eyesight, I didn’t see it myself. Instead, Mari saw it on the vehicle in front of us at a red light and read it to me. I still didn’t see it until she directed my eyes to its location above the bumper on the back of the vehicle. It was thus evidence to both of us that it was an answer to my prayers: a sign from God that I should start publishing some of these quotations and excerpts on my blog.

Here then is the first post on the subject of religion and politics, especially the danger of mixing them. Other than the quotations from the Bible, unless otherwise indicated the italics in these quotations indicate my emphasis.

Let’s begin with some biblical quotations on religion and politics followed by my own quotations on the danger of mixing religion and politics and concluding with some quotations and excerpts from others on this same subject.

Biblical Quotations on Religion and Politics 

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight . . .”
—Jesus Christ to secular ruler in John 18:36 NIV

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.”
—Romans 13:1-3 NIV

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior.”
—1Timothy 2:1-3 NIV

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”
—Hebrews 13:17 NIV

^“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
—James 3:16-18 NIV

Self-Quotations on the Mixing of Religion and Politics

“Too often what is presented as theology or history is nothing more than canonized opinion. Much of what is passed off as fact or truth in religion and politics is in reality fantasy, fallacy, or falsehood.” (See my earlier post titled “About Copyeditors: God’s Noble Bereans.”)

“The problem with the United States of America is that in its religion and its politics, as in its manufactures, its salesmanship so far exceeds its craftsmanship.”

“Hardcore preachers and politicians (especially those who mix religion and politics) often think they are heaven-sent when they are really just hell-bent!”

“One religious/political zealot can do more harm to the cause of Christ than a hundred nonbelievers!”

“I have been warning for decades that if America ever falls, it will not be from the activities of enemies without, but from religious, political, and cultural warfare within.” (As the cartoon character Pogo Possum once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”)

Quotations and Excerpts from Others
On the Danger of Mixing Religion and Politics 

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”

—Robert Kennedy, as quoted in the Sapulpa Daily Herald 

“We have become a nation of extremists . . . . [in which] the United States government has become the enemy.”

—Cult expert on CNN speaking of the OKC bombing

“You can’t preach against something continually without some fringe element deciding to do something about it.”

—Hate-group expert on CNN speaking of the OKC bombing

“No religion condones this [bombing], but what do you want to bet that whoever did it claims that he was doing the will of God.”

—Political expert on CNN speaking of the OKC bombing 

“He [Roger Williams, often given credit for establishing the Baptist denomination] knew that when one mixes religion with politics, one gets politics. So to protect the purity of the church, he demanded—150 years before Jefferson—a ‘wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world.’”

—John M Barry, “A Puritan’s ‘war against religion’,”
Tulsa World, February 12, 2012

“The U.S. Constitution, like [Roger Williams’] Providence’s compact, does not mention God. It does request a blessing, but not from God; it sought ‘the blessings of liberty,’ Williams’s ‘soul liberty.’ . . . . Eight years after the Constitution’s adoption, the Senate confirmed this view in unanimously approving a treaty. It stated, ‘(T)he government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.’”

—John M. Barry, “A Puritan’s ‘war against religion’,”
Tulsa World, February 12, 2012

“A word to the preacher/prophet is perhaps in order too: Make sure you don’t mistake yourself for God and trot out your prejudices and political views as if they were of divine origin.”

—Forward Day by Day, Episcopal daily devotional,
entry for November 28, 2011

“We’re living with a generation that’s been living without God, with no rational need for God. They’re highly spiritual, but they’re not religious. . . . The problem is exacerbated by people who share their faith in negative ways. I’m often embarrassed by it. Particularly when you see people tie their religion to politics.”

—Craig Van Gelder, Luther Seminary professor,
quoted by Bill Sherman,
“Professor urges sharing faith in positive ways,”
Tulsa World, January 21, 2012

“In today’s world, many feel threatened by secularization on the one hand and by an ascendant, confusing, and violent religious fervor on the other.” (italics in original quotation)

—Editor’s note in entry for March 1, 2010,
Forward Day by Day,
Episcopal daily devotional

“Who can be surprised if the absurdity,  . . . cruelty and ungodly hypocrisy that have characterized ‘religion’ in the last 30 years have driven people away? If all I knew of God was what I had seen in the headlines, I would not be eager to make His acquaintance. I am thankful I know more. Including that God and religion are not synonymous. God is, to the faithful at least, the sovereign creator of all creation. Religion is what men and women put in place, ostensibly to worship and serve Him. Too often, though, religion worships and serves that which has nothing to do with Him, worships money and serves politics, worships charisma and serves ego, worships intolerance and serves self.”

—Leonard Pitts, “Is religion driving people away from God?”
Tulsa World, March 23, 2009

“If people who call themselves Christians want to see any influence in the culture then they ought to start following the commands of Jesus and people will be so amazed that they will be attracted to him. The problem isn’t political. The problem is moral and spiritual. . . . You have the choice between a way that works and brings no credit or money or national attention. Or, a way that doesn’t work that gets you lots of attention and has little influence on the culture.”

—Cal Thomas, former vice president of the Moral Majority,
quoted by Kathleen Parker,
“Is the Christian right finished in politics,”
Tulsa World, April 4, 2009

“I might have become a Christian had I not met one first.”

—Quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

“Christianity grew because people were willing to die for their beliefs rather than fight for their rights.”

—Dr. Paul Talmadge, Southern Baptist educator

“Those who want to ‘Take Back America’ never had it in the first place. It has always belonged to all of us, even those with whom we do not agree. The ‘Christian America’ of fantasy during the Colonial Era was not very religious at all. Those who want to ‘restore Christian America as it once was’ are probably thinking of their own childhood when they were in a pious and protected environment, unaware of the world around them. When they got smart enough to discover that world, of course it was not what they remembered.”

—Dr. Paul Talmadge, Southern Baptist educator

“What I think really divides us [evangelicals] more than anything right now is the political agenda.”

—Jeffery L. Sheler, quoting Richard J. Mouw,
president of Fuller Theology Seminary,
in Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America

“This may seem obvious, but based on our research on this subject [politics and Christianity], we must realize that our political activism, if expressed in an unChristian manner, prevents a new generation from seeing Christ. . . . Many issues keep young outsiders from committing to Jesus, but one key barrier is their experience with Christians in politics.” [emphasis in original quotation]

—David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian:
What a new generation really thinks about Christianity
. . . and why it matters

“Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of 5-6 times the historic rate (30-40 percent have no religion today versus 5-10 percent a generation ago). . . . But youth’s religious disaffection is largely due to discomfort with religiosity having been tied to conservative politics.”

—Jeffrey Weiss, “Young Adults Doing Religion on Their Own?
Blame it on Politics,”
quoting from a Pew survey in an article on AOL,
dated February 26, 2010

“American adults became increasingly likely to express no religious preference as the 1990s unfolded. Briefly summarized, we find that the increase was not connected to a loss of religious piety, and that it was connected to politics. In the 1990s many people . . . found themselves at odds with the conservative political agenda of the Christian Right and reacted by renouncing their . . . attachment to organized religion.”

—Jeffrey Weiss, “Young Adults Doing Religion on Their Own?
Blame it on Politics,”
quoting Michael Hout and Claude Fischer
in American Sociological Review,
in AOL article, dated February 26, 2010

“In my book Kingdoms in Conflict, I make the case for why Christians should never have a political party; it is a huge mistake to become married to an ideology, because the greatest enemy of the gospel is ideology. Ideology is a man-made format of how the world ought to work, and Christians instead believe in the revealed truth of Scripture.”

—Chuck Colson, quoted by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
in UnChristian

“I just don’t think pastors should turn their pulpits into public policy platforms. It cheapens the gospel. Our congregation doesn’t need another political opinion. They need spiritual revelation. They don’t need to think about politics on the weekend. They need to be reminded to seek first the kingdom of God.”

—Mark Batterson, quoted by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
in UnChristian 

“And when we talk about transforming culture, it doesn’t mean we want to shove it down people’s throats or that we’re going to legislate our Christian convictions on non-Christians. We want to communicate our values in ways that appeal to all, whether they are Christians or not. And if we can’t articulate a vision that someone who is not an evangelical can buy, we’re never going to sell it.”

—Jeffery L. Seler, quoting Richard Cizik,
vice president for governmental affairs
of the National Association of Evangelicals,
in Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America

“[As Evangelicals] our moral vision consists of seeing all the things we can ‘shut down’ to stamp out evil with little thought of the victims of evil. Jesus never told us to ‘organize against’ or ‘legislate against’ anything but to extend a hand of care to victims.”

—Dr. Paul Talmadge, Southern Baptist educator

“Because evangelicals pride themselves in their emphasis on direct experience with God through Christ, they tend to think and act as if cultivating the life of the mind, studying Christian doctrine, subordinating our beliefs and traditions to the consensus of history, and learning from the early church fathers are unnecessary at best or a waste of time at worst. . . . [This] anti-intellectual strain would seem to manifest itself most often in politics and religion.”

—J. Daryl Charles,
The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism

“Questioning the quality of evangelical scholarship has not come entirely from outside the movement. Perhaps the most stinging indictment, in fact, came from one of Wheaton’s own faculty stars, history professor Mark A. Noll, who wrote famously in 1994 that ‘the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.’”

—Jeffery L. Sheler,
Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America

“It appears to me that Christians are trying to build a kingdom when they should be living in the one that abides in their heart. . . .

“It seems even the apostle Paul, who once lived to incorporate laws to form a ‘people of God,’ had to leave that idea behind when he came to know the Christ. 2 Cor 10:6 ‘And we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.’ Seems Paul finally got it. It is not about building a kingdom without but within. What a charade that Christians would replace the prayer booth with a voting booth. As if we have fulfilled some spiritual obligation by voting for someone? We have fulfilled nothing until we have learned that the Spirit is not administered by law. What a fallacy! The coming of the Spirit made the law appear dull within His brilliance!

“Overzealous Christians attempting to force their laws on the land are no different than overzealous followers of other religions trying to do the same thing. . . . If laws could reform, refine and change people, jails and prisons would not be full. More laws will only make more criminals. . . .

“An opinion regarding politics does not make [anyone] a good Christian. . . . not even campaigning. Those things are time wasters and have done little to save the plight of the American lost and hurting. It enables, entitles and entraps.”

—Rev. Danny Lynchard, my longtime friend,
and an ordained Southern Baptist minister

Note: The subjects of religion and politics will be examined in future posts of collected and composed quotations and excerpts. As an “Orthodox, Sacramental, Evangelical Baptiscopalian Methodist” my own spiritual journey and perspective can be examined by visiting my previous blog posts such as
1. “My Religious Conversion”
2. “Life Is Reg’lar/My Mother’s Bible”
3. “A Summary of My Personal Spirituality and Pilgrimage”
4. “Occupation in Exile, Deliverance in Time”
5. “A Baptist Pastor in an Episcopal Christmas Service”
6. “About Copyeditors: God’s Noble Bereans”
7. “Ash Wednesday: Home, Stumbling Blocks, and Psalm 119”

Except for my self-quotes and quotes from other individuals and from the Episcopal Forward Day by Day daily devotional (Copyright 2010-11 Forward Movement. All rights reserved. Used by permission (www.forwardmovement.org), most of the quotes in this post were lifted from the Tulsa World, a moderate, middle-of-the-road newspaper, or from books I purchased from an evangelical/pentecostal bookstore.

If you disagree with any of the opinions or viewpoints expressed in this post, feel free to express your views on your own blog or elsewhere. Please keep in mind that on this blog my purpose is not to provide a forum for discussion or debate and that critics are not my target audience.

About these ads