Don’t Be Silent: The 1st Amendment Was To Keep Government Out Of The Church, Not The Church Out Of Government
ByGary Hamrick
Why is the church quiet? The revolutionary pastors fought and urged congregants to be involved. Why has the church lost its zeal today?
Speaking of revolutionary pastors, back in 1776, a pastor in Woodstock, Virginia, John Peter Muhlenberg, stood up in front of his congregation and preached from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. When he got to verse 8, he talked about how there was a “time for war and a time for peace,” and he unzipped his black clerical robe to reveal an officer’s uniform in the Continental Army. He marched to the back of his church, and he called the men of his congregation to fight. They formed the 8th Virginia Brigade, which is still in active duty today.
James Madison, one of the great founding fathers in Virginia, was running for the first Congress in 1789. While he was running for the fifth district to sit in Congress, he met with the Virginia Baptists in Richmond. They told him that he wouldn’t get their support unless he wrote a Bill of Rights for the First Amendment protecting religious Liberties. Madison did just that, and he won that seat in Congress.
My point is that the church has always been involved in the past, so why be silent today? I think there are a few reasons.
Some have misinterpreted the First Amendment—the idea of a separation of church and state. The First Amendment was intended to keep government out of the church, not the church out of government.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote his letter in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut, he was interpreting the constitutional rights that churches had to be involved in politics. The separation of church and state was intended to help churches and Christians realize that the government can’t intrude, not the other way around.
Then, in 1959, the Johnson Amendment came into law. It muzzled Pastors in the Pulpit from endorsing candidates.
Today, you have pastors who just don’t want to be controversial. Let me tell you something: anytime you step into the arena of truth, it will sound controversial to some people. As pastors, we must continue to urge our congregations. And as Christians, you must be active, not silent, in the pews. Get out and make your voices heard and your values known.
Be involved in the political process today. We’re called to be salt and light. Get out there, please, and be salt and light to this world.
Gary Hamrick is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, VA. Pastor Gary is also on the Advisory Board for The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and serves as the Chief Chaplain for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office
_____Reprinted by kind permission of Harbingers Daily.
