Religion and Politics: An Invitation

Religion and Politics Sermon #1 Introduction
“An Invitation to Talk”
Rev. Cynthia O’Brien
September 7, 2008
Smith Memorial Presbyterian Church


Psalm 9

For the director of music. To the tune of "The Death of the Son." A psalm of David.

PS 9:1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.

PS 9:2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

PS 9:3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.

PS 9:4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.

PS 9:5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

PS 9:6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.

PS 9:7 The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.

PS 9:8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.

PS 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.

PS 9:10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

PS 9:11 Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.

PS 9:12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.




In polite company, never talk about religion or politics. Or sex or money.

Some of you were taught that, and for good reason. Company’s over for dinner, a hot topic comes up, and blam! You’re into a full-on argument. Better not to bring it up in the first place, right? Many people do avoid those kinds of conversations. At other dinner tables, there is lively discusion with strong opinions, and you can participate, but you’d better be sure you don’t disagree with the host.

Well, at church we already talk about religion, but what about politics? When Michael and I were young pastors, someone advised us never to preach about politics. But in seminary we learned about how the Bible is full of politics, from Moses challenging Pharoah to Jesus being accused of political sedition. Some of the books of the Bible have political titles – Judges. Kings. It’s all about politics.

Jesus preached about money, and the poor. Jesus was concerned about health care. So when these issues come up in public discourse, Christians should be part of that conversation. But how?

I saw a bumper sticker that said “Vote Christian.” You have to go to the polls as a person of faith, but what does your faith lead us to do? Does your faith lead you to the conservative right, or the progressive left? No one would say that God is a member of a particular political party, so where does that leave us?

This fall, I’ll be preaching about those topics that you’re not supposed to talk about in polite company: religion, politics, sex and money. The reason I’m doing it is that it’s Biblical, it’s timely, it’s interesting, and it affects our daily lives.

Bill Maher is the host of Politically Incorrect on HBO. I disagree with him on a lot of things, especially his attacks on religion. But he’s smart and funny, and sometimes he gets it right. Bill Maher says that the American public gets stupider and stupider every election cycle, and that they will believe whatever the television tells them.

He’s not completely wrong. There are a lot of people who remain uninformed about what’s happening in our country, who rely on TV ads or late night comedians for political information. There are people who don’t even bother to vote.

But if Presbyterians were a party, we would be the party of education and information. Presbyterians started the public education system in this country. We believe that we should understand our faith, learn about the world, and engage the civil authorities. With all this education, have all 2.3 Presbyterians come to the same political position? No. We’re a big tent denomination with different perspectives across our 11,000 churches. When we mark our ballot, we do not mark it the same.

Laurel watched the Republican convention with me. After the video about John McCain and his imprisonment in Hanoi, she said, “I would vote for John McCain.” I asked her why. She said, “I would vote for him because he’s been in jail a lot.”

I posted this online on Facebook, and Joanne, a pastor in South Carolina, wrote back, “In that case, has she checked out the mayor of Chicago? the former mayor of DC? Most of the recent Louisiana governers? She should just LOVE politics!”

The corruption and the compromises that happen in politics, the ugly campaigning we’ve seen – well, it just makes you want to put your fingers in your ears and say, “I’m not listening!” But we can’t really disengage. It’s going to be there – on the front page of your newspaper, on your television, on your radio. I believe the church is a safe place to talk about what’s happening in our world, and what God requires of us.

In the sermons, I’m going to speak very plainly to you about what I believe it means to be a Christian in today’s political climate. We’ll talk about the Bible. I’ll tell you about what’s happening in different Christian movements, like the Religious Right and the Progressive Left. We’ll bring up hot topics like sex and money and see what Jesus said about them.

But I won’t ever say, “This is who Jesus would vote for.” I won’t tell you you’re unchristian if you hold a different position than I do.

I started my political life as a Republican. But I’ve voted for candidates of any party depending on who I thought was best. This year I re-registered as a Democrat so that I could have a voice in the Democratic primary. I consider mysel a political moderate.

Being a moderate is not easy to articulate. If I were an arch conservative or a left-wing liberal, my position would be clear and compelling. It is much harder to try to define a middle way.

My goal is to give you God’s word through Scripture. Through my preaching I want you to become people of good character and wisdom, reading God’s word and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I want you to be well informed

So, about this series. I’m reading some great books and articles by people like Jim Wallis, Senator John Danforth, John Piper and Marian Wright Edelman. I’ll make some of those articles available to you. We’ll talk about the wedge issues that split us apart, and try to find common ground. We’ll talk about the great reformers and how religion played a part in making our country a better place.

I won’t ask for a show of hands of who’s voting for Obama/Biden and who’s voting for McCain/Palin. I won’t ask the Republicans to sit on one side of the aisle and the Democrats to sit on the other. Although personally I think that would be fun, especially watching you cross the aisle to pass the peace.

But here’s what I will do.

I’ll set up midweek discussion groups on various topics, and you can check the Sunday bulletin or our web site to find out when and where they are.

I’ll keep a blog of these sermons so that you can read them as well as listening to them on the web site or on CD.

I’ll give you an honest answer if you ask me my opinion on current issues or events, but if you ask me about candidates, I’ll just give you a general analysis without telling you who I’d vote for.

We will also meet a couple of politicians. I invite everyone I know to come to church here, including politicians and political candidates. Some of them are going to take me up on my invitation, and at first I was a little nervous about that because we are in the fall campaign season. But here’s how I look at it. If a candidate wants to come worship with us, he or she should be free to do so. And if they are here, I’d like to give them the opportunity to come up and say a few words of greeting. But their presence here does not imply an endorsement by the church.

So we’re going to do some exciting things this fall. I’m going out on a limb, and while I’m there I will need your support, your comments, your ideas. I want to open my e-mail Sunday night and have 25 messages, and when I come in to the church office Monday morning I want to read notes from you and listen to voice mail messages. Tell me what was helpful, what wasn’t helpful, give me articles to read and YouTube links and funny quotes from the campaign. Be a contributor to the process, so that when the election is over, we can say that we had a meaningful civil discourse, we learned something about God and something about ourselves, we honored our faith, we became stronger people, and we worked together for a common goal.