Micah Beckwith, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, preached a sermon about hate that has people all upset.
I did not watch the sermon and I will not.
Let me tell you what I HATE about this. And I do hate it. And I think my hate is righteous.
It’s not the message so much, because there are abundant passages of Scripture clearly indicating that God hates evil. Anyone who’s bothered to read their Bible couldn’t miss the many, many times it is clear that God abhors sin and violence and evil.
So anyhow, I did not watch this sermon, and will not. Here is why: No politician should ever be placed in the pulpit to preach. Period. I don’t care if it’s the Black church, which itself has a long and problematic history of doing this. I don’t care if it’s the most MAGA Christian nationalist church. It should never, ever happen.
Any church that does this has lost their understanding of their mission and purpose. You do not put politicians—I mean elected officials—in the pulpit to preach sermons. Whenever you do, it is an implicit, and maybe even explicit, endorsement. And that is wrong and shameful. It inevitably leads to a diabolical idolatry. God have mercy on his church.
You don’t fix this by putting the so-called “right politicians” in the pulpit. You fix this by refusing to ever platform elected officials at pulpit to preach the word of God.
If you are a pastor and you become an elected official, you resign your pastorate. Period. Teach Sunday a school class. Lead a small group out of your home. But no more Sunday morning sermons.
