Further reflection on the Jeremiah Wright flap, from a left-leaning democrat, but not about partisan politics. This is about how we parse our values of patriotism and Christian discipleship as church leaders and how our folks respond to our choices.
Hillary is quoted in the NYTimes this morning as saying: "Given all we have heard and seen, he (Wright) would not have been my pastor." She is further quoted as critiquing Obama: "While we don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives, we do have a choice when it comes to our pastors or our church."
The assumption in that last quote is a common one. Christianity is a voluntary activity. We make choices to join churches or leave churches or not go to church at all based on our private values and prejudices. One of our favorite prejudices leveraged against our churches and our pastors is patriotism. I've been reminded frequently as a pastor, and I'll be you have too, that we are not free to criticize our country or our president because that's mixing church and state.
I've always felt that I owe a higher allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ than I do to my country, and I'm a kind of American heretic because of it, I know. I am frankly shocked that Americans are criticizing Jeremiah Wright for mining the scriptures for God's priorities and using those scriptural insights to criticize the priorities of the government.
Hillary's comment also reminded me that prominent church members and community leaders are not above using their celebrity and their clout (and their contributions to the church) as a threat to domesticate the clergy. "If you say something I don't agree with, I'll leave this church and tell everyone why."
I personally believe Christians are called to a higher standard of behavior. Of course we are free to disagree with our pastors, but we're not free to reject the demands of the gospel to put God first!
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