The New York Times reports that a pastor in Minnesota is alienating his congregation by suggesting the church organization not sponsor political events or philosophies. Newsbusters examines the bias in the article.

The pastor has a point, even if it isn’t represented the most faithfully in the Times. The church has to preach Christ crucified for us. It must do this whether we have a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Otherwise a church just becomes another political action committee.

We put a lot of trust in our labels. Some of us assume that because someone is a registered Republican that they are small government, pro-life, Bible-believing lovers of America and freedom. Anyone who’s been paying attention lately knows as the Party gets more and more “big tent” this assumption is fast becoming obsolete. A lot of Republicans today would have made good Democrats just 15 or 20 years ago. It would be foolish for a church to back a particular party.

We do derive a lot of our values from Biblical teaching, but our country’s religious heterogeneity precludes us from using the Bible explicitly as justification for whatever laws we write. Some Americans hold to the Jewish temple law, and some Americans regard the Bible as not applicable to our lives at all. “For the Bible tells me so” does not produce a consistent effect in our effort to have some sanity in our society.

When a political candidate runs as “Reverend” so-and-so, we don’t know if we are getting Jesse Jackson, Pat Robertson, or what. The title does not confer political competency. Hopefully it would indicate moral competency, but they are sinners too. Pastor Murray this Sunday remarked, “Never trust a pastor alone with the church’s money.” They get tempted too.

A lot of principles which are Biblically based also appear in nature. We have a more homogeneous idea of nature among us than we do any common Biblical foundation. The Touchstone Magazine blog is working on a series of 10 ways we can argue for one-man, one-woman marriage from natural principles. Abortion can be addressed from the history of medical advances in prenatal care. This is not a surprise, that nature even when obscured by sin testifies about God. It is likely more expedient, especially to non-Christians, to advocate “godly laws” by arguing instead from nature.

There are situations where the legal prescription of a behavior is more chaotic than just teaching a behavior is wrong through the church. Adultery and sodomy become so prevalent that in some places we’ve taken it off the books. We don’t have laws against coveting, or calling our brother a fool, or looking lustfully at someone. When the enforcement becomes more onerous than the sin, the church is a better agent than the state for behavior change.

The church can and should proclaim God’s moral statements to the people to show them their sin, to call them to repentance, and to receive the Gospel. The human enforcement of man’s law is only one influence on behavior. The idea that the omnipotent God watches everything we do is sometimes a more powerful incentive than the threat of prisons or fines.