Politicians in the Pulpit
By S. B. Horton
We Need the Salvation of the Bible and Not of Politics — Intolerance and Church and State Union Threatened The following from the Texas Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union will be found very interesting reading matter at this time when “National Reformers” are using such strenuous efforts to change the character of our American system of government from the strictly civil to the religious. We commend these spicy paragraphs to the consideration of all concerned. “Our attention has been called to a considerable number of ministers who have endeavored to answer from the pulpit and through the press our recent article on ‘political preachers.’ In the communication complained of we were careful to address ourselves only to pulpit politicians. We quote from the offending article: “We address ourselves exclusively to that coterie of political clergymen who prostitute their high calling by capitalizing their reputation and by lending their occupation to designing politicians.” “We did not know that there were so many preachers belonging to that class in Texas. “The vindictive spirit and bitter resentment shown in these replies corroborates the necessity for, and the wisdom of, the challenge we gave the political ministers to return to the pulpit. We want to thank that large body of consecrated ministers who refuse to be lured from the pulpit by the lust of power, for the righteous indignation they feel over the attitude of their associates who have entered the political arena. “Now that the inflammable material has all exploded and the smoke has cleared away, we will, at the hazard of being tried for heresy, apply ourselves to the remedy, and invite all who desire to preserve the sanctity of the pulpit unsullied, to cooperate in the work.” The Warning of Our Forefathers
“The difficulty of keeping the preacher in the pulpit is as old as religion. Christ encountered it in the temple when He drove the priests from the bargain counter back to the pulpit. Our Pilgrim Fathers met it when, through the influence of the clergy, a witch court was established at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, that precipitated a legal holocaust, threatening to reduce the population to ashes, and which was extinguished by the laymen uniting and forcing the preachers back to the pulpit. Our noble sires anticipated it when they wrote in three constitutions of Texas a paragraph warning the ministry against political activities. In all of these constitutions the following language appeared: “Ministers of the gospel, being by their profession dedicated to God and the care of souls, ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions; therefore, no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatever shall be eligible to the legislature.” The Embezzlement of Power
“The embezzlement of power on the part of the ministry in the present age reached the zenith of its folly when an ecclesiastical court established a few weeks ago to distribute political patronage was exposed in the now famous McClure case, which will go down to posterity as one of the boldest efforts of the ministry to acquire control of the government in the religious-political history of Texas, and which will shame us in the memory of our children. “We are hurrying toward a crisis that approaches in intolerance the Spanish Inquisition, which for more than three centuries terrorized the conscience of the people, and it is well for the friends of religion to pause, and consider the distance we have traveled toward a union of church and state.” “Returning to a discussion of the constitution, it appears that the good behavior of the preachers caused the precaution so wisely taken by our forefathers to be considered unnecessary in making the present constitution; but the ministry has violated this confidence, and we now find political high priests manipulating conventions, ecclesiastical courts assuming jurisdiction over candidates, ministers of the gospel participating in political caucuses, and our pulpits oftentimes loaned to office-seeking politicians to the disgrace of the ministry and the shame of the church. Preachers Should Be Regulated
“We think a ministerial clause should be written in the present constitution, and suitable legislation enacted rigidly regulating the conduct of political preachers, making it a penal offense for a preacher or a combination of preachers to seek to manipulate political conventions, or endeavor to distribute patronage, and legislation should also be enacted preserving the sanctity of the pulpit from political vandalism. “How a preacher votes on any subject should be a matter of no concern to the membership, and he should not be encouraged to reveal his political affiliations; but a preacher has no more right to preach his politics to his congregation than a school-teacher has a right to teach his politics to his pupils. No matter how adroitly the minister may approach his subject, nor how well he may fortify his position with precedent and false logic, he can no more preach a political sermon without converting his pulpit into a political rostrum than he could sell intoxicating liquors from the altar without converting the church into a barroom. He can no more purify politics by playing the game than he can sanctify gambling by running a lottery. He will no more control the government without making the state serve the church than any other special interest would control government without making it serve their purpose.” Salvation Not in the Statute Book
“It is our opinion that when this world is saved, it will be through religious sermons and not through political speeches. Salvation must come to us from the Bible and not from the statute book. It will come through the counsels of consecrated ministers and not from caucuses of political preachers. “The country is suffering from a negative religion. We think ‘Thou shalt’ is as important a command as ‘Thou shalt not.’ The world never needed a religious ministry more or political preachers less than it does to-day. Our rural civilization is withering for the blessed influence of divine messengers of life. The farmer needs the personal touch of the religious pastor. He seldom comes in direct contact with his hallowed influence except when he is baptized, married, and buried. It is a time-honored custom for our pastors to visit their rural congregations once a month, preach a sermon, take up a collection, eat dinner, and hurry back to the city. We approve it all except hurrying back to the city.” The Preacher Must Live with Us
“A preacher who will not live with us and share our trials and tribulations can never hope to interpret the life of the farmer or construct Christian character in the community.181It is as much a part of the duty of a pastor to inspire us to own a home on earth, as it is to exhort us to build a mansion in the skies; to persuade us to fill the mud-holes in the road from our homes to the church, as to preach of the golden streets of the New Jerusalem; to help us lift the market basket and aid in the solution of our own problems, as it is to convert a heathen or coerce an anti. Let us get our religion from out of the skies and bring it down to mother earth. Give us a religion we can farm by, as well as die by. We know how to vote.”—Fort Worth (Texas) Semi-weekly Record, June 5, 1914. It is rather unfortunate that the ministry should be served with such a lecture from the laity; but if good can be accomplished through efforts of this character, this rebuke from the farmers will be a blessing in disguise, and the farmers who have thus written may occupy a place equal to that of Aquila and Priscilla, who rendered valuable service to Apollos, “an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures,” expounding “the way of God more perfectly.”