"Politics in the pulpit"

These words mark the header in the "The U.S. at a glance..." section of this week's issue of The Week Magazine (a great way to get your news in a quickly digestable form).  Apparently a group of pastors who are part of a group called Alliance Defending Freedom (whatever that means) plan to endorse political candidates from their pulpits on October 7th, and then send videos of said endorsements to the IRS, basically daring them to remove their tax exempt status.

I hope the IRS throws the book at them, and I don't want to hear anything about how oppressed Christians are in our hedonistic culture, blah, blah, blah.  The law is clear.  Churches and other non-profits are exempt from paying any income tax or sales tax as long as they don't endorse particular candidates.  Throw the book at 'em.

Are you telling me that there aren't enough major issues facing the world today that those preachers could preach about? 

Besides all the legal stuff, to stand in the pulpit and endorse a human candidate for office smacks of idolatry and lack of faith to me.  As Christians, we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom or Realm of God, not the United States of America.  The voice of the prophet is one who calls us to follow the ways of God, especially as we witness God's actions in Jesus Christ.  To do otherwise is an abuse of the privilege granted to those of us who dare to stand behind a pulpit (or music stand in some cases).

Open questions to those pastors: In whom does your faith lie?