“RENDER UNTO CAESAR THE THINGS THAT ARE CAESAR’S, BUT RENDER UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD’S.”

1/31/10

On this last Sunday before the Illinois primary, Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) and Comptroller Dan Hynes, Governor Quinn’s (no relation) opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial race, are campaigning in Black churches on the South and West Sides of Chicago. The activities of these two pols, neither of which I can support, despite Quinn’s (no relation) terrific last name and Hynes’s geographical origins, and almost equally attractive last name, brings up a point that has nothing to do with the merits of either’s candidacy.

When a church hosts a campaigning candidate, be it a Black Pentecostal, Baptist, or AME church in a big city welcoming a Democrat, a White Evangelical church in the rural reaches of our state or country hosting a Republican “passionate conservative” (See today’s other post, “I WAS MISINFORMED.”), or a Catholic parish in the suburbs throwing open its doors to a GOP opportunist willing to exploit the abortion issue for Catholic votes, isn’t there something intrinsically wrong happening? Aren’t the faithful in those churches seeking salvation, or at least some form of it, in the temporal world of secular politics rather than in the eternal words and assurances of Jesus Christ? Isn’t there something inherently un-Christian going on when Christians place their confidence in the promises of perfidious pols, or even those few good and honest people who occasionally seek public office?

There is also the constitutional question here: Should places of worship, with their property tax exemptions and other forms of favorable treatment by government and its tax code, be advocating for political candidates? But the more profound question is where the faithful are placing their faith when they welcome politicians to their churches and services.