Please consider reading this short but powerful reflection on preaching and politics by Russell D. Moore entitled The Messiah Channel: Jeremiah Wright & the Conservatives Who Preach Just Like Him. Please keep praying for me, and for every other preacher that you can think of, because the temptations that come with the pulpit are far greater than you can imagine. I found the following quote particularly succinct and to the point:
Preachers will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That’s why so many of our Christian superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don’t like to talk about sin. That’s why other Christian celebrities are seen to be courageous for fighting their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their congregations.
Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do. The prophet Isaiah warned us of such conspiracies replacing the Word of God centuries ago (Isaiah 8:12-20). As long as the Serpent’s voice is heard, “You shall not surely die,” the powers are comfortable. [Genesis 3:1-4]
Jeremiah Wright’s pronouncements are tragic. But they are tragic not just because of what he said, but where he said it. He was standing in the place of Jesus, but channeling Che Guevara. Change the channel and you will find a smiling, non-threatening, pro-America preacher, also standing in the place of Jesus, but he’s channeling Ayn Rand or M. Scott Peck or Peter Drucker.
The answer to both is to preach Christ, and him crucified. Where the gospel is preached, the whole story of Scripture as it is summed up in Jesus Christ, people will find authenticity and wholeness and, yes, liberation—and will do their best to extend that liberation to others. Maybe that’s why the most vital Christianity is increasingly found in Africa, with believers too pinned in by Islamic persecution to fall for mammon worship, whether of the covetous revolutionary or jealous consumerist kinds.
