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Friends,
I'm in Vermont with my mom and dad as dad recovers from surgery. I love even this late fall, where the leaves are falling all around. And I love hanging out with my family.
It means I'm missing Halloween at home, where some 200 people will knock on each of our doors. Ken will take care of that, but I'm sad to miss it.
But what I get is spending a fair amount of time discussing politics, discussing church, and eating good food with my parents. It's the way I was raised.
-Liz
Politics in Church, Part One
Should we be doing politics at church? Obviously this newsletter presumes yes. But a pastor just recently said to me that it would be helpful to have the arguments at their finger tips. Some parishioners honestly wonder, and would appreciate supporting arguments.
At the same time, sometimes I think it is too much politics. What is our purpose if not to focus on our people and our God? We should not stray far from that purpose. Perhaps there is a limit to what politics we should do in church. Perhaps there is not.
So here comes four newsletter posts about politics in church. Today we will think about the most obvious parts of politics; the parts that obviously are part of the very foundation of church.
Then we'll struggle with the stuff that isn't as obviously about faith, many topics that our faith, formed under the Roman Empire, does not speak directly about.
The third topic is where, at church, we engage politics. Not everything goes in the sermon.
And fourth, I will consider the purpose of church, and how that purpose and political discussion are connected. Perhaps that should have been first, but it is not.
So here we are at part one.
There are some topics that are clearly in the purview of church. If they are political, it is because we have a society have failed to live out these basic care-taking requirements of human living.
Every person deserves food, clothing, housing, and health care. People in prison need to be cared for in a way that prepares them for easy re-entry. Strangers must be welcomed. This is basic humanity. This is essential to our Christian faith.
And yet, in our nation, not everyone has these essentials. To speak to these topics is simply to proclaim the gospel. Of course we do that in church.
Still, some of our congregation members will think we are bringing politics into the pulpit when we address these topics. This will be helped by looking at the Hebrew Bible texts about care of the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. What I think we miss in those texts is the connection of faith leadership and governance in throughout the Hebrew Bible. We have lived with separation of church and state for so long that we don't recognize that there is no separation between these in our scripture.
When the prophets are ranting and raging about the reform of their religion, their fury is at the leaders. And the leaders run both the faith and the government. Throughout the Hebrew Bible the story is about the community at large, and the attacks are on the government that allow the widow, the orphan, or the stranger to go without what they need. The rules of the faith, that the stranger must be treated as one of us, are enforced by the government. Or, more likely, are not enforced and thus the prophet must speak up to demand better treatment.
Certainly we could, if we wanted to live our faith fully, decide to feed all the hungry, house all the homeless, welcome all the strangers in our community. But the fact is we have not chosen to do this. Part of this is because there is more resources to share if we do this through our tax structure. Part of this is because the poorest communities have the most need, and so it is more fair to gather the wealth over a larger area.
But part of it is because our biblical witness calls for justice. Justice is a systemic issue--the poor and the sick and the stranger should not be dependent on go-fund-me pages and individual charitable giving. We show the most respect for all children of God by simply making housing, food, and healthcare a basic right. By providing quality education that is not dependent on the housing values in the neighborhood. By caring for the stranger as if they were our sibling.
Is any of that politics? I don't think so.
Where is your church in the political and justice realm? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
Chrys Matthews is a Nashville Singer Songwriter that gets to the point about what is good church!
Pre-order my next book! When Did We See You? A Lenten Exploration of Poverty & Wealth. It comes out January 2026.
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