God’s Republican?
The Alpena News, September 4, 2004
A clerical colleague asked, “Why do churches have altar rails?” Before I could get very far into medieval history, he answered, “To separate the Republicans from the Democrat!” Whether and how much there’s any truth to the joke, I’ll leave to you. Meanwhile, I’d like to call your attention to a church where there are no altar rails – the church of the televangelists.
This past January, the Rev. Pat Robertson said, "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. The Lord has just blessed him... It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad." (AP/Fox News, January 2, 2004) More recently, the Rev. Jerry Falwell claimed, “It is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew...to get serious about re-electing President Bush." (The New York Times, July 16, 2004) I don’t know what either has been saying recently, and am not sure I want to know.
Pardon me, but isn’t this a little outrageous, no matter the pulpit or party? Church members need not toe one political line in order to be counted faithful. Indeed, I believe a healthy church allows and even promotes dialogue about issues that affect the “life of the city” – the root meaning of the Greek from which politics is derived. Really, what bothers me is not that these conservative brethren are involved in politics, but how. They need something like an altar rail to allow for political differences within a church – in their case, one that makes room for Democrats on its other side.
In churches of gothic architecture, an altar rail separates the sanctuary from the choir, representing the sanctity of the altar area. Except for this, I would welcome people to jump back and forth over the rail, just as I might. Scripture, tradition, and reason all suggest that Christians need not be ideologically predictable or partisan. This would invite responsible Christian involvement in elections – involvement that thoughtfully examines all candidates and platforms by the complete range of Christian values, and weighs the relative importance and urgency of all the issues. More important than the sanctity of the altar is the sanctity of God’s people and the world they’re called to love and serve in God’s name.
Pulpit partisanship that presumes to endorse any candidate as “God’s choice” insults the sanctity of God’s people, who are God-gifted enough to think, judge, and vote for themselves. The First Letter of John encourages us not to believe every spirit, but to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God,” asserting that “many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (4:1) Moreover, preachers who come across as having God in their pocket this way make me wonder whether they themselves are in someone’s pocket. If they are, didn’t the likes of Jeremiah and Amos discredit court prophets once and for all?