Bringing Religion into Politics: Five Things Pastors Owe to the Public Square

It was simultaneously the most helpful and most controversial sermon I’d ever preached.

In the fall of 2021, Critical Race Theory (CRT) was a trending cultural topic. To ordinary Christians, this sounded like a debate topic in the community college faculty lounge. But in reality, it was a dangerous idea spreading throughout the evangelical world and leading many astray.¹ So I preached a sermon about it, explaining what it is, where it came from, and why Christians should reject it. I worked hard to be objective, fair-minded, and even-handed. No mustard or angry rhetoric, just the facts.

I received more positive feedback about that sermon than any other I had ever preached. Not only the “good sermon, pastor” comments on the way out the door, but emails of gratitude, handwritten thank you cards, and lengthy letters from people I’d never met who watched it online.

At the same time, I also received a critical email from a few church leaders that accused me of “preaching politics,” though I said nothing about politicians, elections, or parties. They said this since CRT was a cultural issue being debated in the political arena. Some of these leaders were committed to a no-politics-in-the-pulpit policy, which rendered most hot-button cultural issues off-limits.

But I had a sneaking suspicion that they really meant no conservative politics in the pulpit.

A year later, that suspicion was confirmed when I preached another sermon opposing various Biden-era COVID vaccine mandates. Those mandates violated the consciences of several of my members, and our own doctrinal confession affirms liberty of conscience. Further, journalist Megan Basham had published a bombshell report called “How The Federal Government Used Evangelical Leaders To Spread Covid Propaganda” earlier that year, which documented how federal officials enlisted evangelical leaders to promote the vaccine. Yet after that sermon, one of my leaders accused me of misusing scripture to advance a political agenda. Ironically, he wanted our church to take a politically charged position in support of vaccine mandates.

This made the issue clear to me. These leaders did not object to left-leaning political positions, only conservative ones. All these leaders have since moved on to other churches and this is no longer an issue at my church.

You might assume that these leaders were committed leftists, but that’s not true. Their progressive sympathies came from misguided pietism, the belief that Christians should stay above-the-fray, keep their hands clean, avoid controversy, and focus their public messaging on soul-winning. By their reasoning, signaling sympathy with the left could help us reach more unbelievers with the gospel.

A recent post on X captured a similar sentiment.

Our chief aim should be to glorify God and share the Gospel with the lost! It’s that simple. Jesus never once attempted to change culture. He came to save his elect. That’s it . . . So . . . Love God. Love your wife. Love your kids. Love others. Paul never tried to change politics. Peter never tried to change politics. Nope, not even Jesus. The Christian walk is NOT about changing America. Jesus doesn’t want us getting caught up in fruitless endeavors.

That sounds quite humble and godly, doesn’t it? But if every Christian in America adopted that posture, Christians would abandon the political arena entirely. No Christians would seek public office. We would focus exclusively on our homes, families, and churches, while leaving all the school boards, sheriff’s departments, courtrooms, and city councils to be run by unbelievers. There would be no Christians fighting for just laws and righteous leaders, because those things are “fruitless endeavors.” When Christians abandon the public square, we surrender it to whoever is willing to occupy those roles. And at present, we’re seeing growing numbers of atheists, secularists, LGBTQ activists, socialists, Hindus, and Muslims running for office—and winning.

Is Christ honored by simply letting them win?

The Myth of the Neutral Pulpit

Here’s the challenge we face in our day. As an increasing number of moral issues have been deemed “political,” the pastors who address them with clarity and conviction will be accused of preaching politics. But the pastor who avoids these issues for the sake of unity will leave his people ill-equipped regarding some of the most urgent issues of our day. And if a pastor won’t speak up because he’s afraid of being political, Satan will politicize everything until he won’t speak at all.

Political issues aren’t going away. If anything, they’re increasing, because cultural customs and mediating institutions have failed, leading to everything being politicized. As families and churches have failed to shape our common understanding of the good, the state steps in to fill the void. Political issues are moral issues, and moral issues are spiritual issues. Therefore, pastors must address them if they are to be faithful to God and helpful to their flocks.

Further, political issues are natural to what it means to be human. In modern times, political issues are collisions of fundamentally irreconcilable worldviews. In the not-too-distant past, ordinary political disagreements were about tax rates or trade policy. In our day, Democrats and Republicans cannot agree over the definition of a woman. Some believe abortion is murder; others believe it is a woman’s right.

Should pastors not provide biblical instruction on these matters? Can two church members merely “agree to disagree” about such morally urgent matters? These aren’t differences about the church’s carpet color. These are questions about nature and reality itself. A pastor who faithfully preaches Genesis 1 will end up sounding political, whether he intends to or not. Churches end up doing “at the movies” sermon series instead.

The Poison is in the -ism

To get things moving in the right direction again, we need to recover true piety—an ancient idea that has been forgotten in our day. I distinguish true piety from pietism, which overemphasizes immaterial/spiritual realities at the expense of material/physical realities. A pietistic man might say, “Let’s focus on soul-winning and not get entangled in worldly affairs.” A truly pious man, however, can share the gospel while also being involved in the civil realm.

The problem with pietistic thinking is the presumption that “spiritual” means “non-physical.” But biblically speaking, to be “spiritual” means to be guided and motivated by the Holy Spirit, obeying God’s commands as revealed in the Bible. The truly spiritual man doesn’t limit his Christian duty to explicitly religious things, like quiet times, prayer lists, and Bible readings (all good things, by the way!), but he seeks to apply his Christian convictions to every area of his life.

The Latin word pietas described the virtue of honoring one’s obligations to God, family, and people. As the ancients understood it, true piety was considered a public virtue, where one looks upward to God, backward to one’s fathers, and forward to one’s children. We see a good example in Nehemiah 4, where he inspires the workers in Jerusalem to take their shovels in one hand and swords in the other, calling them to “Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes” (Neh. 4:14). Similarly, G. K. Chesterton said we do not fight because we hate what’s in front of us, but because we love what’s behind us.²

But in modern times, piety has lost its public dimension, shrinking our Christian duties to the interior realm while dismissing public concerns as mere worldliness. This is pietism. Thus, a “pietistic” Christian thinks he is more godly by not getting involved in politics, which he dismisses as “worldly.” But in so doing, he surrenders the public square to unbelievers who have no scruples against writing their own morality into law.

Put simply, piety is good, pietism is bad, the poison is in the -ism.³

The Cost of Abandoning the Public Square

As many evangelical Christians have abandoned the public square in recent years, we are grossly underrepresented compared to our significant numbers. Although we make up roughly a quarter of the US population, our bench of political leaders, judges, and public intellectuals is pretty thin. Perhaps this is because we have done what the evangelical elites told us to do: treat power as an idol and view politics as a distraction from “real” kingdom work. That was a grave mistake. Faithfulness to God requires true piety, which means we must be more political, not less.

Some readers may raise an objection here: Christ gave the church the keys, not the sword, and any pastor who speaks out on political matters has overstepped his office. But when someone charges tells the pastor to “stay in his lane,” that man or woman is using the Bible to muzzle the Bible. However, if we let Scripture guide all our speech, there are at least two responses to this mistaken objection.

First, Scripture is unavoidably political, so there is no way to faithfully preach the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) and not end up addressing issues that will be considered political. I’ve heard it said that scripture speaks directly to some things and indirectly to everything else. A faithful pastor should feel free to apply the word of God to many issues that may not be directly addressed in scripture, shining the light of Scripture wherever it is helpful to do so.

Second, the so-called “political issues” of our day are actually worldview questions that will determine the future of our country. Since everything is politicized these days, the pastor who avoids addressing them is outsourcing his duty to the pundits, podcasters, and social media influencers. That isn’t faithful shepherding.

Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “I often hear it said, ‘Do not bring religion into politics.’ This is precisely where it ought to be brought, and set there in the face of all men as on a candlestick.”⁴ That was true in 1881, and it is still true today. Therefore, the distinction between the keys and the sword should guide how pastors speak, not whether they speak.

Five Things Pastors Should Do

To help pastors recover their prophetic voice in the political arena, I propose the following five things every pastor should do to get started.

First, Pastors Should Preach True Piety

Men of true piety are statesmen, saints who hold strong faith in God and are willing to fight for their families, churches, and communities. Their private piety is marked by a commitment to the scriptures, prayer, their families, and church life. Their public piety is marked by taking personal responsibility to assert God’s righteousness and justice in their communities and country.

In 1 Timothy 2:1–2, Paul gives helpful instruction about praying for civil leaders. He commands us to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” When political leaders are doing their job well, it promotes conditions of peace where the Christian faith can thrive and grow. Thus, pious Christians have a stake in politics because good governance preserves our ability to fully live out our Christian convictions.

This is no different from what the Baptist Faith and Message (2000) affirms in Article XV on the social order. It says, “All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society . . . Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love.”⁵

Second, Pastors Should Preach as the Conscience of Society

Pastors do this primarily by proclaiming God’s law regarding urgent issues in the culture, giving instruction to civil leaders about their duty to uphold justice and righteousness.

Regarding cultural issues, the Ten Commandments form the bedrock layer of the Bible’s teaching about right and wrong.⁶ Helpful expositions of God’s law can be found in several Reformed catechisms, such as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Baptist Catechism, and Calvin’s Geneva Catechism. These tools are useful to equip a pastor to speak out on moral and cultural issues as each commandment is stated, its obligations and prohibitions explained, and a brief rationale provided.

For example, a pastor should not hesitate to speak against abortion as murder, because it is forbidden by the sixth commandment. A pastor should not hesitate to condemn every form of sexual sin, including pornography, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, transgenderism, and the wickedness of LGBTQ pride which celebrates sins the Bible condemns, because these are all forbidden by the seventh commandment. A pastor may speak against unjust taxation and government corruption, explaining how these are a form of theft forbidden by the eighth commandment. Preaching about these issues promotes the public good.

Let me offer a word of caution here. As a general rule, pastors should preach about cultural or political issues when they are is relevant to the text they are preaching. Exceptions to this rule may be cultural moments of such great significance that many people expect to hear biblical instruction about it. For example, many preachers did this after the attacks on September 11, 2001. I did this myself after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. At such times of national crisis, God’s people need their shepherds to connect the world to the Word. But most of the time, the Word should set the agenda. The pulpit should not be turned into a weekly cultural commentary on whatever is in the news. Doing so undermines the primacy of the word of God and makes the preacher more of a pundit and less of a prophet.

Someone might say that preaching God’s law can’t change the heart, therefore we should only preach the gospel. But again, such an objection misuses a biblical truth. Preaching God’s law is necessary to establish the reality of sin for which men must repent to be saved. God’s holy law pricks men’s consciences and orients them to what is good and right. Preaching the law alone cannot change the heart, but preaching the law is necessary to demonstrate our need for the gospel, which does change the heart. This is what Paul means by preaching the law “lawfully” (1 Tim. 1:8–11).

Not only that, but changing hearts is not the only thing Christians should care about. The moral law is the unique revelation of God’s standard of righteousness, and it is universally binding on all men. Biblical commandments govern how we treat our neighbors and should be preached, upheld, and enforced, regardless of whether or not an individual is regenerated. We have laws against murder and we punish murderers, irrespective of the state of their souls. In this way, good laws are necessary for a virtuous citizenry, which is necessary for society to function properly. A just society will uphold the good and punish the wicked (1 Pet. 2:13–14). Deuteronomy 19:19–20 says, “You shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.” Put simply, the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. And pastors should not fear preaching the whole counsel of God, laws included.

Even more, because there are Christians who hold the sword and others who need to hold the sword, they need to know what God demands. Therefore, regarding the civil magistrate, Paul calls him “God’s servant for your good” (Rom. 13:4). A “servant” needs to know what the master requires. Whose job is it to inform him? As ministers of the word, pastors are certainly responsible to instruct him (and by extension, everyone else) about the duties of the civil magistrate.

Third, Pastors Should Preach Accurately about Political Parties and their Party Platforms

Both political parties have their problems, but they are not morally equivalent. The 2024 Democratic Party Platform explicitly endorsed abortion through all nine months, transgender interventions for children, and the redefinition of civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.⁷ These positions are not merely different from Christianity but are actively hostile to it.

That’s not to say the Republicans are our saviors. When Republicans support evil, pastors should call them out. But the Democratic Party advocates for these evils as stated goals, while the Republican Party opposes them (at least on paper).⁸ The Democrats’ agenda represents civilizational suicide, and the Republicans are the only viable party standing in their way. A pastor who treats the two parties as morally equivalent for the sake of pulpit decorum is misinforming his people.

Some might object that pastors should not condemn the Democratic party because it binds the consciences of God’s people in a matter of Christian liberty. Nonsense. Party platforms exist for a reason. They are meant to inform voters about the larger agenda they are supporting when they vote for a particular candidate of that party. Party platforms are used to recruit candidates, enforce voting patterns once in office, and form the consciences of the voters who support them. In other words, party platforms represent a moral agenda that must be scrutinized in light of Scripture. This is not to say a pastor should tell his people who to vote for. But in 2026, it is pastoral malpractice to simply tell people “vote however you like.” To vote for the Democratic party means giving the sword of the state to those who favor slaughtering pre-born babies and mutilating children.

Fourth, Pastors Should be Willing to Call out Public Officials for their Sins, by Name, when Necessary

Public sins require public correction. The prophet Nathan confronted King David to his face for adultery and murder (2 Sam. 12). Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar to “break off your sins by practicing righteousness” (Dan. 4:27). John the Baptist told Herod that his marriage was unlawful and he literally lost his head for it (Mark 6:18). The Apostle Paul reasoned with Governor Felix “about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25).

Further, the public official doesn’t need to be present to hear the rebuke, because the rebuke is meant for everyone’s instruction, not just his (or hers). When Jesus made a baldly political statement insulting Herod, calling him “that fox” (Luke 13:32), Herod was not present to hear it. Jesus said it to the Pharisees in the hearing of the disciples which was recorded in Scripture for our benefit. The same principle applies in publicly denouncing the wickedness of civil leaders.

Fifth, Pastors Should Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Calling Everyone to Repent of All their Sins, both Public and Private

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 says, “Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.”⁹

This sentence indicates the pursuit of two simultaneous goals: (1) the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness, and (2) the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God. The pursuit of the first goal is not dependent upon completion of the second. We can and must do both at the same time. Pastors should work to improve society and establish righteousness even though men may be unconverted, and our continued preaching of the gospel is necessary to make those gains “truly and permanently helpful.” Thus, the church can assert her influence in both the public square and the prayer closet.

One Thing Pastors Should NOT Do

Even though pastors should perform the duties described above, there is one thing a pastor should NOT do. Pastors should not preach like pundits. Let me explain.

Pastors must remember that the ultimate aim of preaching is the glory of God and the edification of the saints. Pastors often speak with a “prophetic” voice, because they are delivering an authoritative word from God to his people. The difference between a prophet and a pundit is the purpose of the message. The pundit’s primary aim is to provide political commentary on the issues of the day. The prophet’s primary aim is to speak a divine word that glorifies God and edifies his saints. This distinction must be maintained.

Most pastors are not equipped to speak authoritatively about complex policy matters, much of which isn’t relevant to the daily lives of their people anyway. If a pastor reads this essay and starts preaching about trade policy, NATO, or federal antitrust regulation, he’s missed the point. He is an ambassador for Christ, fwho represents the interests of God’s kingdom in the public square. The pulpit may address cultural issues but must ultimately point people’s hearts toward God, who is sovereign over politics, cultures, nations, rulers, and future events, and to whom all men will one day give account. If his sermons sound like stump speeches, something has gone wrong. The pulpit is no place for political rants.

Here’s what concerns me. I’ve seen so-called conservative pastors use their pulpits to preach about the injustices of our society in ways that seem intended to provoke anger and resentment in their congregations. It seems their sermons are preached for their YouTube audience rather than the people in their congregation. Right-wing pastors may angrily vent their frustrations about the progressive left in ways that encourage their people to sinfully indulge their grievances, hatred, and resentment.

To be sure, young people (and older ones, too) have legitimate reasons to be angry about what the left is doing to our country. They are frustrated they can’t find a woman to marry who isn’t a closet feminist. They can’t afford to buy a home. Gas is too expensive. Scarce job prospects are going to illegal immigrants. Young white men have been told their whole lives that they are racist, sexist, and evil, and that they deserve all these hardships and more. And yet, should pastors fan these smoldering embers of frustration into an inferno of rage? No!

Jesus has a name for men who do these things: hirelings. Hirelings are those who “care nothing for the sheep” (John 10:13). They are more interested in growing their audience than shepherding the souls of the saints entrusted to their care. Every pastor must give account for the flock under his charge (Heb. 13:17). No pastor is called to shepherd the whole internet.

Pastors should preach about cultural issues because God’s people need biblical guidance to navigate the crazy times in which we live. Pastors should understand their plight and lead them to respond righteously, even if it be righteous anger. Scripture tells us to “be angry and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26) and that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (Jas. 1:20). It is easy to indulge the flesh by nursing resentment and anger, but it is hard to teach people to channel their legitimate anger in productive, God-honoring ways, such as lobbying their representatives or even running for office themselves. Pastors must preach about political issues as they are relevant to their people, but they must never subordinate God’s kingdom to politics and culture. After all, Jesus himself taught us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

Ultimately, every pastor is a man under a divine charge (2 Tim. 4:1). He must preach the law of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of eternal life that awaits us. Our conservative politics must ultimately flow from our allegiance to Christ. We must answer to him for how we lived as Christians, not merely as conservatives. We fight for our families, our church, our communities, and our homeland because Christ calls us to, not merely because it aligns with our conservative politics.

Conclusion

Looking back, that CRT sermon was an important inflection point in my ministry. It exposed a fault line in my church over what people expected from the pulpit. The encouraging letters and cards that came afterward all shared a similar theme: “This was helpful.” Ordinary Christians hear about political issues all week. They are bombarded with leftist propaganda in the workplace, on social media, on the news, and in the classroom. Some of them didn’t even have categories for how to think about it. They just had a vague feeling that something was “off.” But when I preached about it, it clicked. And more than that, it showed them that they could find answers in God’s all-sufficient word. I gave them biblical categories and explicit texts to help them navigate a confusing issue, and by God’s grace it built their most holy faith. But I am not alone.

Sooner or later, every pastor will face an inflection point like that, and when he speaks up, he will probably face the same problems I did. Some people will feel like someone finally turned on the light, and they’ll see the world more clearly. Others, however, will not like it at all. They will accuse him of being political or divisive. The faithful pastor will do it anyway, because even though their responses are very different, he is helping them both. He gives a light to the first group to see the world better. And he brings the disagreement of the second group into the light where it can be dealt with openly.

In the end, God sees. And as Peter said to pastors, “When the chief Shepherd appears, [he] will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pet. 5:4).