1.17.2008

Sunday Morning Politics?

It makes a lot of sense for presidential candidates to speak in churches on Sunday mornings. What doesn't make sense is churches devoting the few hours they have on Sunday mornings to politics, a subject matter which has almost nothing to do with God.

Now, although I have no statistics, I would bet that the majority of people in my church are conservative, at least socially. I know many church members who are politically active, and I am not suggesting that Christians completely extricate themselves from the political process.

But I would be appalled if we wasted the precious time we have on politics, on things that are (by definition) of this world. (The one exception is candidate Mike Huckabee, who actually preached at a church.) The media is (or are) doing a fantastic job bombarding us with the useless minutiae of the presidential race 24/7; do the two hours people spend actually half-focusing on God need to be spent discussing the economy or the war?

War, the economy, abortion, and other political topics are indeed issues that should be informed by our personal beliefs. But they are in no way central to Christianity at all. I just wish that people knew half as much about the Bible as they do about politics (even though people basically know nothing about politics).

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