That answer came from the most famous Christian preacher in modern times, but it might just as well have been from the average evangelical pastor in the United States. Billy Graham's thinking, after all, appears upon first blush to have its priorities right. The pastor is first and foremost a soul winner, who deals in matters of faith. He cannot afford to get sidetracked in matters indifferent to his central task: evangelism. What's more, addressing public square issues such as the sanctity of life or war may, in fact, inhibit a pastor's success. As Boston Globe reporter Brian McQuarrie noted approvingly in a recent story headline about the popularity of a particular preacher: "Pastor rivets many without politics [and] cultivates spiritual ground."2

What, then, should be made of the assumption that the better part of wisdom is for the pastor to ignore social issues? The Church should be concerned about the threat of identifying too closely with any one particular political ideology of the day.4 But there are also deeply important reasons to think that the penchant to steer clear of controversial cultural topics in general is a singularly bad idea. Namely:

1. The servant of God has no right to limit the scope of the Bible's discussion only to those matters of private belief and interpretation. The prophets addressed the great social issues of their day and often stood imperiled by their words against princes and kings. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus' message about the kingdom of God was perceived by both Jewish and Roman authorities to be a political threat to their power.

2. If the preacher chooses not to interpret the great crises of the day for his congregation, rest assured, somebody will. Nature, after all, abhors a vacuum. The result is the emergence of a host of self-appointed spokesmen for the faith whose tone and tack often mortifies the ordinary Christian watching his television. How likely is it that this poor believer could at least ease his mind with the thought that, "At least I know where my pastor stands on that issue"?

3. It is fair to ask the stay-out-of-politics pastor whether or not he thinks that his maxim should be applied universally. If he does, then he appears to be indicating his indifference, at least historically speaking, to the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, and even the fall of Communism. For it is unthinkable that these great reform movements would have taken place without contributions such as John Newton's powerful opposition to the slave trade, Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership in the face of systemic racism, and Karol Wojtyla's (Pope John Paul II) courage to confront the cruelty of Communism in Eastern Europe.

It is no small matter to differ on a spiritual issue from a servant as godly as Billy Graham. It is certainly not comfortable to wade against the tide of popular opinion or prevailing sentiment, especially when it involves one's own ministry. But when it comes to those areas of public life that have the potential of touching the lives of all people (e.g., who has the right to live, whether a person has a right to die, what the individual owes the state and vice-versa), these are things with which the man of God must deal. And that decision to enter the fray of public debate may well be an occasion for controversy, a phenomenon that could only be offset by the confidence that one can with integrity say that he has, in fact, proclaimed the whole counsel of God.


Footnotes: 
 
1 Billy Graham, interviewed by Larry King, Larry King Live, CNN, June 26, 2005.
2 Brian MacQuarrie, "Pastor Rivets Many without Politics," The Boston Globe, October 11, 2005.