This article was first published on my substack and also Australian Presbyterian
The lady was quite insistent on speaking to me. She wanted to tell me what was wrong with my sermon. “I was going along fine until you brought politics into it, and then I switched off.” “What politics did I bring?” “When you started speaking about gender issues.” We had been looking at Psalm 12 and talking about how there is no one who speaks truth, and how in today’s society we are increasingly living by lies. As well as mentioning the lies told in the church, I’d spoken of the lies told in the society, and given five examples of each. One of these is the lie that you can change gender, and that gender is mutable, purely a social construct. I referenced the upcoming census in which that is taught, but it is a lie, and it is a harmful lie.
Was I bringing politics into the pulpit? And should I have avoided doing so? There is a real difficulty here. The world has changed. In the old world, the world in which many of us grew up, what we meant by politics was party politics. And in most of the Western world, except for the USA, the answer has always been given in Reformed churches, “No. We are not a political organization. We do not advocate for one political party.” Any minister who preached politics from his pulpit rather than preach Christ and His Word would be neglecting his duty, and indeed, in my view, should be subject to admonishment, rebuke, and even discipline. The pulpit is not a place for us to express our own opinions or our own politics. We are there to proclaim the Word of God.
In the old world, you could often go to a church and have no idea how the minister voted. Our church in Dundee, St. Peter’s, was used as a polling station, I remember one classic election when I went outside, and at the entrance, as they were allowed to be, there were banners, posters, and people encouraging people to vote for their particular party. As it happened, two of the campaigners were from my congregation. I thought it quite amusing that the Conservative person thought I would be voting for them, and the Labor person thought I’d be voting for them.
The question here is not party politics, but what happens if the world has changed? We no longer live in the old world. What happens when everything becomes political? What happens when the government begins to tell us what is right and wrong, and what is good and evil? There is going to be an inevitable clash when you preach the scriptures. In this Brave New World, it is impossible for the faithful minister not to be accused of preaching politics. If teaching what Christ taught about marriage, or men and women, is politics – so be it. Preach it brother!
But our visitor was still insistent and played her key card. “But you said it without empathy.” It’s hard to argue against the ‘empathy’ card – just as it is hard to argue against the ‘you are too proud’ card. And it is a very effective card – because the sensitive and compassionate pastor does not want to hurt people and does want to empathise with those who suffer. But the question here is empathy for who? I have a great deal of empathy for those children and young people who have been taught this lie, and then seek to change their gender and find that it doesn’t work. I’ve worked with those whose lives have been destroyed, and shared in the pain of the detransitioners. I do have an empathy with those who have a genuine mental disorder, which causes them to think that they are trapped in the wrong body. In the same way as I have an empathy for those who suffer from anorexia and think they are too fat, although they are wasting away. It’s precisely BECAUSE we love people and empathise with them, that we preach the truth. We want them to be free, and it is only the truth that will set them free. (John 8:12).
So, I’m not going to stop teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman as Christ taught (Matthew 19:4-6). I am not going to stop teaching that to kill the child in the womb is to kill someone who’s been created in the image of God (Psalm 139:13-16). I am not going to stop teaching that all human beings are made in the image of God and that racism is sinful (Genesis 1:27); I am not going to stop teaching that we are to remember the poor (Galatians 2:10); I am not going to stop teaching that it is God alone who will determine the end of the world, (Acts 17:31). And I am not going to stop showing empathy for sinners (Matthew 9:36) and speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
There is an enormous temptation for us as preachers to tone it down – especially when we are accused of being political or unempathetic. I would plead with my fellow preachers to heed the words of Thomas Witherow in his book, The Apostolic Church:
“ It seems to me that if a preacher only prophesies smooth things, preaches only what he considers palatable to his audience, spare errors that are abroad in the community working much evil, and purposely keep back any portion of the truth for being pronounced sectarian and uncharitable, he ceases to be the minister of God and becomes the servant of man.”
Who will we serve?
David Robertson
Scots Kirk, Hamilton. Newcastle.