I don't understand why you keep pushing your political views as a pastor. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?
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This question is a combination of questions I have received lately, both in person and on-line. I'd like to make clear from the outset that I would like nothing better than to take a break from the politics. I was hoping to be done when the election came, and did manage to get a bit of a break as Trump secluded himself from the Press (though not Twitter) in the months that followed.
But in the bare handful of days since he took office, Trump has demanded my attention by being more diametrically opposed to the message of scripture than any President in history, and I do not say that lightly.
People are used to religion in politics being primarily issue driven. The most common example is abortion: churches in general have taken such a loud and heated voice on the issue that in many people's minds a candidates take on the issue determines whether or not they are a Christian candidate. I abhor that kind of thinking, not least because I am personally pro-choice.
If I had been a pastor during GWB's Presidency (alas, I was a mere college student/seminary student/intern during those years) things would have been different. I wouldn't have liked a lot of what he was doing, but it wouldn't have been a matter of everyday concern for me, certainly not the sort of thing I would have gone to war over every day. I disagreed with W on a lot of points, but for the most part they were ideological differences, not the sort of thing I would take to my pulpit because part of being a Presbyterian Pastor is a very strong awareness of our own sinful natures... I am not God, and just because I believe a thing doesn't make it true.
Which is why opposition to Donald Trump and his message of alternative truth, ie, just because he believes a thing means it IS true, is so important, the sort of thing I cannot stand down from, especially when people's lives are threatened by those actions.
Trump is not the first politician to lie, but I have never heard an administration so eager, when caught in a lie, to simply claim that all who disagree with them are the real liars, or to claim a concept such as alternative truth. But he claims the sun shone when it was clearly raining, that millions attended when the Mall was clearly empty, that Mexico will pay for a wall while proposing a tax that will be paid by Americans, and it becomes shockingly clear that truth has no place in the man's mind.
Trump is not the first politician to have a beef with refugees, but his thinly veiled Muslim ban (please don't argue with me on this one. The Ban on refugees affects Majority Muslim countries with the exception of their religious minorities, making it a ban on Muslim refugees.) is built on a claim of threat where the threat is wildly overblown, a boogey man to drive fear. A Christian is called to reject that fear, especially in the service of others.
Trump is not the first politician to have personal failings and skeletons in his closet, but he is the first where those failings are held up as virtues. His dishonest business practices are touted as "savvy," his tax dodging is touted as "smart," his treatment of women touted as "good ol' boy." And as his apparent hatred of Muslims inspires attack after attack of our Muslim population, as a Preacher my role becomes clear.
If Donald Trump ever does a thing that I think is in line with the values I am called to preach, I promise I will give him credit for it. But I have been paying very, very close attention and it hasn't happened yet.
As for separation of Church and State, the law requires that the State not give preference to any religion in it's law making. It doesn't say a darn thing about Pastor's speaking against the State so long as we do not try to make our churches arms of a political party. And I'm not. My opposition to Trump isn't about me being a Liberal or a Democrat, but about opposing behavior and policy so antithetical to everything I believe in.
In the meantime, as a Pastor, I will continue to advocate for minorities, for refugees, for the sick, for the wounded, for the prisoners, and for the downtrodden, as Christ commanded us to do. I will give that message to my people, to my family, and to anyone who will listen.
I get that people weary of the politics. As I said, I am, too. But the dangers posed by the Trump Presidency to the very concept of decency in the United States are clear. And I was hired to preach truth. If you don't want me to preach truth to the best of my ability, then you don't want me as your pastor.
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