Pulpit-Politics poll results and commentary

Last week Cory at Madville ran a poll on his blog regarding politics in the pulpit. As noted by conservative Bob Ellis of Dakota Voice, the results were what one might expect.  As Bob quipped; "Yes, I am thoroughly impressed by the results of a liberal poll at a liberal blog."  Cory contends that his results are accurate: "Anyone who pays attention to the comment section can see I have a pretty interesting cross-section of readers, many of whom disagree passionately with me on important issues… I will maintain that this poll gives a fair picture..." My response was simply… "I wonder how that poll would turn out on my blog." To that Cory responded; "Steve! Run the poll! I'm curious, too! I'll link it!"

So I ran the poll over this past weekend. Here are my results and following analysis.

My first observation is the low participation - only sixty people took the poll. The last poll I ran had double that number. This could be attributed to at least three factors. 1) Infrequent blogging has produced decreased traffic. 2) My poll wasn't exactly impartial. I suspect the low participation was more the result of the former than the latter though I do agree my poll questions were loaded which perhaps kept some from voting. Several times Cory has noted that though I've made some convincing arguments for the constitutionality of pulpit freedom, it still just doesn't "feel" right to him. I'd think other liberals didn't have an option in the poll to check that matched their feelings. I will add that 3) the majority of conservative evangelicals right now would probably vote NO because they think the pastor should just "preach the gospel*****." There wasn't an option on the poll for those with this view.

So, I'd guess both liberals and conservatives took a pass on my poll because I didn't have a box to check that fit their reasoning.

Initially, what is obvious is that my results are the exact opposite of Cory's (Yes: 13%, 15 voters  No: 87%,103 voters)  and, yes, I'd think that is because liberals read his blog and conservatives read mine. I too have a good amount of liberal traffic and commenting on this blog but my suspicion is that it is far from fifty fifty. We each have a few from the other side of the aisle trolling our blogs.

My poll reveals what I suspected. There is a connection between church attendance and people's opinion on this issue. Liberals who champion the separation of church and state may not go to church but they want the government in there every Sunday. Conservatives are regular church goers and they want their pastor setting forth the Biblical position on issues and holding that standard up to those who seek to be leaders among us. They don't want the government helping the pastor write his sermon. So, in that regard I guess they do favor the separation of church and state ; - )

The Rapid City Journal has a follow up story today on this matter basically making the point that most pastors are not willing to do any endorsing here in the primary. As I noted in my earlier post, this is because at this point we don't have Scriptural justification to favor one candidate over the other. That all changes after the June primary. At that point, more pastors will be speaking out. And pastors are smart, most of us are able to make the case and never even mention a name.  However, I'd encourage them to name names and underscore how and why all this matters.

*****The fallacy of this popular evangelical notion that "preaching the gospel" means saying/doing nothing political is something I've addressed several dozen times as I've toured the state meeting with groups of pastors over the years. Evangelicals have reduced the "gospel" to the message of forgiveness only, however this is changing rapidly (YWAM recently announced the gospel is bigger than individual conversion stating the mandate of the church is to make disciples of nations). The message of forgiveness is only the front door to this message of Good News. The "gospel of the kingdom" is ultimately about the Kingdom of God coming to earth - the Kingdom is God's rule and reign which began with Jesus' first coming, increases as leaven eventually permeates the entire loaf (all sectors of society) until he returns personally to bring justice, deal with evil once and for all, and all nations bow before his Lordship. Until that day we aren't pushing for theocracy, but obeying the Biblical mandate to influence the Republic in the ways of righteousness knowing that those who reject God are working feverishly to influence the Republic as well. God isn't mad at darkness, he's called us to be light on the path and that includes shining the light of God's Word on those who would aspire to be our leaders. If a leader says go this way and God's Word says don't, pastors have a mandate from God to not be silent. Being salt and light means holding the line against this advancement of evil in society until he returns. As one of my "mentors", the former pastor/theologican then turned politician (becoming the Prime Minister of the Netherlands) Abraham Kuyper once said, "In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare,'That is mine!'” So much for the separation of church and state.