Pastors and Politics

As anyone can tell who looks closely at the blog, I'm a supporter of Barack Obama. I made the decision to give my public support to Obama some time ago, but chose this medium to do so. I know that I received some criticism for that choice, but that hasn't been a problem with my congregations -- past or present. That is in large part probably due to the fact that I've not made much of that decision in church circles.

The whole issue of church and politics is the topic of several essays in this summer's edition of Congregations (Alban Institute). In one of those essays my friend, Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer and I offer some thoughts and guidelines for fruitful conversation between religious folk and the political community. That essay emerged from a presentation Arthur and I gave in June 2007 at a Democratic Party sponsored forum on faith and politics held in Goleta, CA. It is entitled "Faith and Politics: Finding a Way to Have a Fruitful Conversation." In that piece I took and modified ideas I found in Mark Toulouse's book God in Public (WJK, 2006). Arthur provided some important ethical guidelines that may prove helpful. I think you have to subscribe to read, but joining Alban is worth the price.

In another essay I offer my rationale for giving support to a political candidate (I don't name Obama in the article).

As we have seen the whole issue of clergy and political connections has gotten tricky of late -- and we wrote the original piece long before both candidates had their pastor problems!

So, I raise the question again -- should clergy remain neutral/silent when it comes to politics?