It’s hard enough to act like a Christian during an election year; trying to be a pastor while all this political hoopla is going on is downright hazardous. Because political campaigns stir such strong emotions in folks, because so many of us get “a bit testy” about our political opinions, it’s small wonder that a lot of pastors avoid any and all discussion of an upcoming election. The conventional wisdom certainly dictates that, as a pastor, you should treat election year politics with all the enthusiasm you would bring to the youth department’s request to re-enact Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal (sacrificial oxen included) behind the fellowship hall this Sunday.
As with most things, the conventional wisdom is half right and half wrong about this. In what follows, I want to explore when you should listen to the conventional wisdom about pastors and electoral politics, and when you should chuck it out the window.
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