Considering Free Speech Sunday

Someone, somewhere, has proclaimed this Free Speech Pulpit Freedom Sunday (see what happens when you blog after getting up at 3 am- this was the least of my worries). People do that- declare a Sunday for their causes. It can be good to move us to focus prayer on particular issues like abortion, adoption, and the persecuted church.

Free Speech Sunday is a new one, at least to me. Sometimes I feel like I live in a cave. You’d think I wasn’t connected to the internet by an umbilical cord.

The purpose, as I understand it, of Free Speech Pulpit Freedom Sunday is to recognize what the IRS says a church can and cannot say. My understanding of the tax code (I am not an accountant, and getting one’s opinion on the tax code is about as helpful as asking a roomful of theologians a question) is that churches can address political issues, but not lobby for particular candidates. That this law is not fairly applied, from my opinion, is not the point. Actually, it is the point in terms of the intention of the day. Some use this fear of removing 501(c)3 status from conservative churches to silence them. But churches can talk politics, according to the law. We can say if a candidate’s position on abortion or marriage is immoral. We can say if the candidates break the 9th commandment (oh, boy do they do that early and often). We are on less solid ground when discussing the economic theory of the candidates (I have strong opinions on this matter, having a degree in economics, but that is not the same as comparing someone to a biblical standard on truth-telling in campaigning, or killing babies.

What is legal for me as a citizen of the United States under the First Amendment, however, may not be permissible for me as a pastor. In my theological heritage, great emphasis is placed on the preaching of God’s Word. It is viewed as if God is speaking to the people thru the pastor. From the Westminster Larger Catechism we see:

Q. 160. What is required of those that hear the Word preached?

A. It is required of those that hear the Word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.

If we pastors kept this in mind more often, we would temper part of what we say. We would temper our edginess, our congeniality, our illustrations. And yes, we includes me. (please, don’t tell me how well I do this each Sunday)

One of the pulpits I used to occupy.

It also means that when I am in the pulpit I am to read, explain and apply the Word of God to the people of God I serve. I do this fallibly, as do all pastors. It is the Word of God, the Scriptures, which are infallible. Preachers, sadly, aren’t. But, I am not free to engage in political discourse in the pulpit unless it touches upon an application of the text. I am not free to tell you for whom you should vote or how you should vote, from the pulpit. You may ask my counsel outside of the pulpit, but for me to do it from the pulpit is to add “thus saith the Lord” to my opinion.

The pulpit is not the place for my opinion. It is the place for God to declare His Word to His people according to their needs (not desires). I am bound by God in the pulpit. I do not have free speech there, and nor should I. But my speech is not limited by men or government agencies. It is limited by God Himself.

So, this Sunday I will do what I always set out to do: preach from a particular text. The text I will preach on is Colossians 1:1-2 because I’m starting a series on Colossians. This is because I believe my congregation needs to hear about the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. They don’t need to hear who I think should be President (or Senator or…). So, I hope other pastors will join me in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ this Sunday (and every Sunday).