Maxey Parrish: We should keep politics in its place, out of the church | CPT PPP Coverage

Beatty mentioned a few of the great crimes committed by church leaders who assume civic powers. Last spring I taught at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Two blocks north of my flat stood the ruins of St Andrews Castle, where once lived the murderous Mary Queen of Scots, the monarch Beaty pointed out deserved well her nickname Bloody Mary. Two blocks east was the still-imposing ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, once the ecclesiastical center of Catholic Scotland and reportedly one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe, destroyed by Protestants during the Scottish Reformation.

Down the street, in the direction of the legendary Old Course, the home of golf, was the site of the Rev. Patrick Hamilton’s martyrdom. The Protestant reformer, who like me taught at St. Mary’s College, was found guilty of heresy by Catholic Archbishop James Beaton, who in 1528 handed him over to civil authorities to be burned at the stake. It rained that February day, causing a slow, painful, gruesome death, ostensibly in the name of the Prince of Peace.

Hamilton’s last words: “How long, Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this kingdom? How long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny of men? Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Beaton was assassinated in 1546 at St Andrews Castle by a group of Protestants posing as stone masons. Doing what they no doubt believed was God’s will, they hung his naked body out of a castle window where birds pecked at his flesh for days. His killers didn’t record what he said before dying.

We’re not burning people alive today, at least not physically, but we have reached a point where powerful pastors use their sermons not to tell of God’s love, but to instead instruct congregants on how to vote, causing some parishioners to believe that a ballot cast to the contrary precludes a person from experiencing God’s grace. I heard an emotional and sincere Sunday School prayer request once for “a friend who I thought was saved, who seemed to be a Christian, but then I learned he voted for Obama!”

I know many, maybe most, who read this will disagree – there’s a reason Donald Trump chose Waco to begin his third White House campaign – but I believe the church has no business telling believers how to vote or that voting one way or the other determines one’s salvation.

Our goal as Christians is to be Christlike, and He was apolitical, choosing not to be the earthly leader His people demanded, but instead surrendering to the government for His own death and our salvation. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote and do our other civic duties such as paying taxes. It just means we should keep politics in its place, which except for the clear biblical admonition to pray for (as opposed to cursing) our leaders, all of whom God appointed, is not the church.