Religious Figures in Politics

2008-05-23

To date, there are two presidential candidates that had three pastors endorsing them, all of which have made off-color remarks regarding either various religious persuasions, the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and other sensitive issues. See the following article on Al Jazeera for the latest developments (archived):

What should the role of religious figures be in endorsing political factions or personalities? Looking to the Scriptures, I really don’t see a good parallel as to what our role should be. I believe we should pray for and respect our leaders (and by corollary, our potential leaders), obey the laws, and so forth. Should Christian leaders be choosing sides both blatantly and publicly? Should politicians take endorsements from pastors and other religious leaders?

In our American heritage, we always enjoyed what we call the separation of church and state. The First Amendment to the Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

From the Christian perspective, we know from history when the Faith has been given a favored status in the eyes of the government, there were unfortunate consequences. This gave rise to the Church yielding political power, and many wars have been fought either by Christians or between Christians, which was neither introduced nor endorsed by Jesus Christ.

I believe the Church should be very aware of what is going on the political realm, but should we openly endorsing particular candidates? I do not believe so. What do you think?