NEWS BLOG ALERT – 3
9/23/24
By: Bill Watson
Direct Comments to
Pastors Are Being Censored Unknowingly
I recently read an article by Caroline Woods (attached below) that was rather interesting, especially since I have been accused of being “political” more times than I can count. There are people today that think the pulpit should be exclusively reserved to address the Bible and only the Bible. They claim, to use the pulpit to address social issues, underscored by the Bible, is wrong and is out of order. That those pastors, should simply remain on point and only speak on Christian Living––stay away from social issues! But, is this true?
Interestingly, American history is full of “lightening-rod” speakers that “lit up” the people of America to rise above the social morass and enjoy a revival of attachment to Christ and our Father. Keep in mind, those who shrink back in “cowardice” from addressing the issue’s of our day forget; it’s not the Church that has become political, but rather, politics has become more excessive in violating our religion and God’s Church needs to stand firm and show our people their sins (Isa 58:1).
Clearly, the “Black Robs” of the revolutionary war that were instrumental in motivating the men of the revolution to fight for their freedom and liberty of separation from Great Britain were a courageous bunch! The thundering preachers of the Great Awakening of the 18th century, like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Thomas Prince were of the same breed. In the 19th Century was the 2nd Great Awakening, lead by some of the most courageous men of that time; men like James McGrady, John McGee, and Barton Stone. Later on, in the late 19th century men like Dwight L. Moody and Charles Finney, lead the way for the 20th century revivalists such as Reuben Torrey, Billy Sunday and later on Billy Graham.
These were men that spoke to the issues of the day. They wrote books that articulated the down side of how the Social Issues negatively influenced the affects of our Christian culture and spoke to those issues.
As we know, this lead to the LBJ amendment (passed in 1954) that attempted to limit these alleged “political” topics by the government threatening to cancel the tax exempt status of the churches; and sadly, to the shame of some Christian Churches they fell for it and attempted to censor their pastors to stay away from speaking out to the sins of the nation and the leaders of those nations.
Look, Jesus was not afraid to speak to the issues of His day. He over-threw tables in the Temple, called the Pharisees vipers, hypocrites, and blind guides. He minced no words–-even to the point of calling Herod a fox––meaning; he was cunning, sly, and unclean!
At this time, above all other times, Christians need to be Brave, Bold, and Courageous. As was William Wilberforce who led the movement against the slave trade in England; or, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian who stood up against the Nazi regime’s atrocities of the day! These are the kind of examples of Christian Courage that God’s Church needs to see and rise to the occasion; because if we don’t, who will be the “Wall-Watchers” of our nation?