In August 2015, George Barna released results from a survey that revealed why Conservatives do not speak up. It’s not so much because they are afraid of the political correctness of today’s progressive Marxists, and being called names like “bigot”, “intolerant” or “hateful”.
They are quiet because they don’t know what to say; they don’t know how to state their convictions in a Biblical way.
They lack a Biblical Worldview.
Just one year prior to this survey, Pew Research discovered that people want their pastors to speak up on social and political issues.
As one courageous old-time pastor once said “If we are not preaching the gospel well enough for the non-elect to reject us, then we are not preaching the true gospel.
Why are churches and their pastors themselves afraid to speak the full truth?
It all began July 2, 1954, when Lydon Baines Johnson [LBJ] became angry with two prominent Texas businessmen who opposed him in his reelection bid for the Senate. During the campaign, they accused him of being too soft on communism in America.
When a bill overhauling the tax code was going through the senate, LBJ added a few words to the proposal in what became known as the Johnson Amendment. It passed with no discussion and only a voice vote. [You see, lack of courage and corruption was already running rampant through the halls of congress].
The amendment effectively silenced and muzzled all pastors. Nearly all churches are classified as not-for-profit 501 [c](3) charitable organizations by the IRS.
The Johnson Amendment inadvertently made it illegal for a pastor to oppose a candidate from the pulpit.
First, Here’s an oddity: There are 29 different 501 [c] not-for-profit categories, but the only one suddenly silenced was the church!
Second: What does it mean to oppose or endorse a candidate? That’s unclear. If a pastor says “vote to oppose abortion” and one candidate/party is pro-life and the other is pro-choice, did the pastor endorse a candidate? The IRS cannot give a clear answer to this question.
Third: The First Amendment guarantees no governmental interference into the pulpit – NONE. The IRS has no authority to dictate what a pastor can and cannot preach from the pulpit, and they know it. At the urging of the Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF], more than 3,000 Christian pastors have intentionally violated this amendment since 2008 by endorsing or opposing a candidate/party from their pulpit and the IRS has not taken a single church to court.
Why Not you ask?
Probably because they do not want the Johnson Amendment to come under Constitutional scrutiny.
Once again, this is a clear example of how our churches/pastors have bought into and supported the lie. They have been more influenced by culture than they have influenced culture instead.
There are three major institutions of influence in America:
- Public education
- Media – News, art, literature, entertainment
- The Church
Any ideology (worldview) that controls any of them controls any or all of them, controls its people by controlling the culture. Progressive Marxism controls education and the media nearly 100% and now a vast majority of our churches.
A silent pulpit produces an uninformed and politically illiterate electorate.
Before you offer up the tired old objection of “separation of church and state” – know this: There is no such clause in the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
This is just another lie that has been taught for at least five generations and no one questions it’s validity
The phrase actually comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist of Connecticut on January 1, 1802, in which he used the phrase “wall of separation” to assure them that the federal government would never intrude into church life.
If we are going to make sense of our world, we must study worldviews.
[Source: Ch 1 Well Versed by Jim Garlow]