POLITICS AND THE PASTOR
A Leadership Forum
July 1, 1988
In an early election year, when people's thoughts turn to political controversy, what approach should pastors take: mobilize the congregation, speak only to the moral issues involved, ignore the whole potentially divisive mess? Where do you go for guidelines? Why not Washington, D.C.? That's where LEADERSHIP editors Jim Berkley and Marshall Shelley met four pastors who serve a politically minded community. But for that matter, what community isn't-at least to some degree? Political questions are inescapable. The question is, How do those who pitch their tents on the holy hill interact with the secular city? Are there right and wrong ways for pastors to lead congregations amid the political fray? Gathered to speak on the matter were: -Myron Augsburger, president of the Christian College Coalition and pastor of Washington Community Fellowship, -H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., from Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., -Neil Jones, pastor of Columbia Baptist Church in suburban Falls Church, Virginia, -John W. Yates II from The Falls Church (Episcopal). Leadership: Politics is a subject that makes many pastors wary. Somehow it seems dirty. Neil Jones: Politics is certainly not dirty in itself. We're all political animals. Leadership: How so? Jones: It's the language of a pluralistic society if we are going to get along. Myron Augsburger: The word politics originally meant the science of life together in the city; it's an admission that we do not live independent from one another, but our actions either enhance or limit the benefits for the whole. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr.: It's the systematic attempt to establish public policy. Leadership: Does politics have much effect on your churches? Hicks: The black tradition has never seen a serious dichotomy ...
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