Political Discourse in the Church: A Hindrance to Evangelism?

Today I heard fellow brothers in Christ talking about the upcoming 2012 elections, and was intrigued about how passionate the discussion got about who to vote for and how President Obama is doing a poor job.  Now, I have no problem with people expressing their opinion of the President or what their particular political views are, but I do have a problem with the way those views are expressed.  Many Christians, knowingly or unknowingly, condemn others for having different political views from them.  This type of judgmental expression only divides people, and ultimately, I think hinders a Christian's witness in a world looking for leadership. 

Now, I’m not saying we need to be tolerant and mix our faith with those of other religions and sing kumbeya.  What I am saying is that we as the church need to be wise in how we express our views among other Christians and those who are non-Christian.  The danger we face as a church is a sense of elitism, elevating our own personal political views, which breeds an heir of prideful posturing that I believe is not of God.  The scripture says in Matthew 10:16 that we need to be wise as serpents but gentle as doves. 

Do you think anyone would want to visit your church if everyone publicly and openly condemned a particular party?  We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.  We wrestle against evil spiritual forces that have infiltrated both Democratic and Republican parties.  Just because one belongs to one particular political side doesn’t mean that they are immune to being used by the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy. 

The church must not align themselves with a particular party, because we in turn exclude others from seeing and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ lived out in a community united in Christ.  Personally, I am an independent because I don’t believe that I should be confined to a party without looking at both sides.  Politicians are chameleons, in my opinion.  They pander to whomever to get the most votes.  How can you tell if a politician is a Christian anyway?  Do you look at his family life?  Many politicians on both sides seem to fail on this point.  Just look at the all of this past year’s sex scandals and affairs.  Do you listen to see if they pray and go to church?  Well anyone can profess to be a Christian, pray, and go to church.  Many Christians assumed that President Obama was a Muslim, even though he professed to be a Christian, prayed, and went to church.

Now, I can write a book about different political policies, but my purpose is to get the church to see that there is a time and place for everything.  We need to have more discussions about politics.  Christians pursuing a political career need to understand how to see their party through a biblical worldview.  We need more godly people in both the Democratic and Republican parties.  God is sovereign.  He chose Saul to lead the people of Israel even when they rejected Him as their king.  The people of Israel in 1 Samuel 7 and 8 wanted to have a king like the other pagan nations.  And God’s plan can still be seen through Israel’s rebellion; for through king David, the Messiah was born.