Preacher, You Don’t Need to Step Down to Run for Political Office – It Is Your Job to Tell the Politician What to Do

My friend, theologian and scholar Peter Leithart, responded to my previous post, “Does a Pastor Running for Office Strike You as Bizzare?” with his own column in First Things, titled, Pastors Don’t Need To Enter Politics-They’re Already In It.

I commend Leithart’s entire piece to you for your profit in reflecting on these important issues. That said, I’d like to continue this public conversation through a response.

Leithart wrote: “However effective his campaign is, it’s a strategic error and perhaps reflects a theological mistake. The premise seems to be that pastors must become politicians to influence the nation’s direction, and that in turn suggests that the power of civil institutions is the greater than all others.”

I don’t see my position necessarily as “pastors must become politicians”, per se, but that spiritual men and women must become the transmission agents to bring wisdom and righteousness-His Word-to the public square. Virtue is a key component of freedom.

Click here for more.

SOURCE: BarbWire
David Lane