I noticed today that God’s Not Dead 5 is coming out soon.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6eU802jGts
I think I’ve seen one or two of the other movies in the series. They weren’t that bad as I recall. Kind of what you’d expect with the story line. Certainly no worse than many movies I’ve actually paid money to see. ( I saw The Waterboy twice and I paid to do it both times…..I have no explanation for that.)
Anyway…..
But without getting into that, let’s go straight to the premise.
A Pastor decides to become a candidate for Congress. My pastor rarely engages in anything political from the pulpit. On occasion he will call attention to a particular issue that’s on the ballot. Not having seen this movie I can’t say whether this pastor does or doesn’t do similar. Many churches do this political thing on a regular basis. In fact it often forms the foundation for their church and bleeds into their doctrine. But speaking in the church is one thing.
Given the vociferous objections on this forum to religion having any say whatsoever in our decisions at the ballot box, I have some questions for us all.
-What do you think of a Pastor or Priest in our legislature? There were as I recall at least 2 priests in Congress, both democrats. Sen. Raphael Warnock is a pastor, democrat. Reverend Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton have each run for the democratic nomination for president, while Rev. William Barber has garnered attention in recent years for leading “Moral Mondays” protests to advocate for civil rights and progressive causes in Raleigh, North Carolina. All democrats.
Other than Mike Huckabee who was not a member of congress but did run for president, I haven’t come up with any on the republican side but I’m sure there must be some. However, members of the clergy are far down the list of congressional occupations. Of those we do know, some seem to have no reservations injecting religion into their agendas.
-Should said candidate shelve their religious inclinations if elected to serve? Must they? Suppose they ran and they were completely open about a primarily religious platform, and they were elected? What then?
-As a legislator, you are effectively elected to serve your state, all of your state. How does a legislator with strong convictions religious or otherwise, serve a divided state or country? Doesn’t that make for a stalemate legislatively?
-And moving a little farther down the political pecking order, are people of faith expected to shelve their sincerely held beliefs or moral convictions at the ballot box? As a secular voter, would you do that?
Maybe you can think of some more questions or points that should be raised. Please do.
Here’s a little more information for those interested. https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/10/28/21505881/2020-election-pastors-politics-religious-leaders-congress-cleaver-warnock-collins-pew-research/
Approved ~ Primus Pilus
Southernstar