I’d appreciate your responses (be they simple yes or no answers or lengthy explanations) in the comments. Let me be clear. I am not asking if these organizations should take positions on issues. I am not asking if they should engage in healthy debate or try to advance a viewpoint they believe is Biblical. What I am asking is if these organizations should go so far as to actually say, “You should vote for Senator Bill Smith for President.”
My reason for asking is that I wonder if it doesn’t somehow muddy the Gospel when a Christ-centered organization supports a particular candidate or party. Does it imply that the organization believes Jesus supports that candidate/party. It’s one thing for a group that happens to be comprised of Christ-followers to endorse a candidate; it’s another for a group whose mission is explicitly centered around Jesus or the Gospel to endorse someone.
Like I said, I’m not talking about taking a position or having a debate about issues, although I would consider an “issue ad” that said “John McCain doesn’t care about the poor” or “Barack Obama kills babies” to be an endorsement and not honest debate.
And just so someone doesn’t pull the Hitler card, let me state for the record that in the case of someone like Hitler, yes, I do believe that the Church should speak out against that person. With this question, I’m more concerned about typical American elections than extreme scenarios.
Update: To clarify, I’m not talking about a legality issue. I’m not asking if these organizations should or should not be legally allowed to endorse a candidate. I’m questioning whether or not, as followers of Jesus running a Christ-centered organzation, the people who operate the organization should have the organization endorse a candidate (what they do individually is a different matter).
Update 2: Grammar/Style issues addressed.
If the organization has a tax-free status, they should not be endorsing candidates (or engaging in political campaigning)
However, I think that a group that can keep its distance should endorse candidates. It is all in the presentation. Many radical right-wing groups (many claiming a Christ-centered ministry) endorsed Bush over Gore in 2000. In addition to that, they demonized Gore and his supporters. In 2004, when it was obvious that Bush was a disaster, they didn’t pull their endorsement because they liked the access to power and not about what Jesus would do.
But just because one can overreach, doesn’t mean it should be forbidden in all situations.
Let me quickly clarify (and I’m going to edit the post to reflect this as well). I’m not talking about whether or not the organization should be legally allowed to endorse a candidate but whether or not (as followers of Jesus) the people who run the organization should choose to endorse any particular candidate.
There is a great similar discussion on a post from August on Tim Stevens’ LeadingSmart blog.
http://www.leadingsmart.com/leadingsmart/2008/08/brian-mclaren-a.html
Hey Jared, thanks for the link. I just read through the comments. It’s a good discussion. I may treat this more fully in a separate post later, but I would say that I think there is a difference between individual Christians endorsing candidates and Christian organizations doing so.
A person is just a person with his or her own beliefs. That person may be a Christ-follower, but no one necessarily thinks that the person’s faith is the sole or predominate reason why he or she is endorsing a particular candidate.
That said, I do think that for pastors the same issue may very well come into play. The only reason a pastor has influence (and thus why that endorsement is important) is because of his or her position within the Church. Obviously, this leads to the same issue where people may perceive that the pastor believes Jesus supports that candidate, and unfortunately, that perception may be more important than the pastor’s actual beliefs.