While considering the supposedly hyper political state of the current American church, I suggest that we be careful not to fall into the error of believing there is such thing as an apolitical church, nor into attempting to somehow politically neutralize the church.
For 1/
For 1/
2/ example, as U.S. churches and denominations were splitting over the political issue of slavery in the 1850s and 60s, many of the fiercest defenders of slavery also complained of the churches transgressing their mission and entering to politics by condemning slavery.
3/ See, e.g., Presbyterian minister James Henley Thornwell, an ardent apologist for the Southern institution of slavery. Thornwell was deeply involved in the national debate over slavery and between Old and New School American Presbyterians. In 1851 he authored a report
4/ commissioned by the Synod of South Carolina, “The Church and Slavery,” unanimously adopted by the Synod. In it, Thornwell argued that the Church had no right nor commission to enter into politics to condemn slavery. Pay attention to how common and familiar this reasoning is:
5/ "The relation of the Church to Slavery cannot be definitely settled without an adequate apprehension of the nature and office of the Church itself. What, then, is the Church? It is not, as we fear too many are disposed to regard it, a moral institute of universal good, whose
6/ "business it is to wage war upon every form of human ill, whether social, civil, political or moral, and to patronize every expedient which a romantic benevolence may suggest as likely to contribute to human comfort, or to mitigate the inconveniences of life. We freely grant,
7/ "and sincerely rejoice in the truth, that the healthful operations of the Church, in its own appropriate sphere, react upon all the interests of man, and contribute to the progress and prosperity of society; but we are far from admitting either that it is the purpose of God,
8/ that, under the present dispensation of religion, all ill shall be banished from this sublunary state, and earth be converted into a paradise; or, that the proper end of the Church is the direct promotion of universal good. It has no commission to construct society afresh, to
9/ "adjust its elements in different proportions, to rearrange the distribution of its classes, or to change the forms of its political constitutions. […] The problems, which the anomalies of our fallen state are continually forcing on philanthropy, the Church has no right
10/ "directly to solve. She must leave them to the Providence of God, and to human wisdom sanctified and guided by the spiritual influences which it is her glory to foster and cherish." (pp. 382-383)
What was his (and their) conclusion?
"The members of the Church, as citizens
What was his (and their) conclusion?
"The members of the Church, as citizens
11/ "and as men, have the same right to judge of the expediency or inexpediency of introducing and perpetuating in their own soil this institution, as any other element of their social economy. But they transcend their sphere, and bring reproach upon the Scriptures as a rule of
12/ "faith, when they go beyond these political considerations, and condemn Slavery as essentially repugnant to the will of God." (p. 387)
In all honesty, when the church appears apolitical, it is just that it has been sufficiently conformed to the dominant narrative, and
In all honesty, when the church appears apolitical, it is just that it has been sufficiently conformed to the dominant narrative, and
13/ breaches of this narrative - in Thornwell's day, condemning slavery as sin as a church - appears to be an intrusion of the political into the apolitical and neutral.
In contrast, see what Dr. King, coming out of a much different tradition, had to say about the role of the
In contrast, see what Dr. King, coming out of a much different tradition, had to say about the role of the
14/ church:
"When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies.
"When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies.
15/ "Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.
16/ "[…] In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have
17/ "heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred
18/ "and the secular." ("Letter From Birmingham Jail)
All I'm really trying to say is, as many of us begin to see the danger of Scylla, don't thereby crash into Charybdis.
There is nothing apolitical about the church, and the neutrality sought is necessarily just a dominant
All I'm really trying to say is, as many of us begin to see the danger of Scylla, don't thereby crash into Charybdis.
There is nothing apolitical about the church, and the neutrality sought is necessarily just a dominant
19/19 narrative within our context that thereby appears natural, normal, neutral, and just.
*Forgive the many typos.
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