This morning I read a tweet that stood out to me from former NFL player and now pastor Dr. Derwin L. Gray who said, “People will leave a church over politics before they will politics for a church. 1.5 hours on Sunday vs. 20 hours a week feeding on cable news and its political partisans ranting, is shaping a lot of people’s theology for the worse.”

I think Dr. Gray is spot on with this tweet but it is also a difficult pill to swallow. As Christians we like to say that we follow Jesus, but what do our words and actions show to the world? As I like to say we are all being discipled by someone or something, so the question is by who and to what? The unfortunate reality is that too often Christians are more of a caricature of their favorite news channel than they are of Christ. In the many conversations I have had with other clergy I can’t count the number of times I have had them tell me that they had someone leave their church because they were “being too political”; or the number of times they heard from a parishioner that they needed to preach more about the Bible than politics. Yet, when you look beyond the surface of these comments often what they were saying was, “Your politics don’t match mine, I don’t like it so stop talking about it.” Or with the comment you need to “preach the Bible more and less politics” quite often means I want you to stick to telling biblical stories but don’t try to connect them to my everyday life and how I believe.

In my 19 years in the ministry, I have had many times where I could tell a parishioner was trying to test the waters to see if I was “on their side”. Why does this happen? One reason I believe it happens is because of what Soren Kierkegaard says, “Once you label me you negate me”. If we can assign someone to a camp that is different than ours then we can disregard what they say because they are a conservative, a liberal, or some other category. The opposite also happens where if I am a part of their camp or “on their side” then people open up themselves to listen…until I say something that doesn’t match up with their favorite pundits talking points and then you are given the boot.

When I can tell people are trying to inquire where I land and I share that as a pastor that I will never tell my congregation that they have to vote for a particular candidate you can usually see a relaxing of the shoulders and sometimes even a sigh of relief. Then their sigh of relief is usually followed up by saying something like, “Yeah, I think pastors are way too political.” I then follow that by saying, “While Jesus was not partisan, as in he is not a democrat, republican, green party, libertarian, or any other particular political party, the message of Jesus is political. The declaration that we make as Christians that Jesus is Lord means that all other kingdoms and leaders are not including the United States of America. This means if we proclaim that Jesus is Lord then this overrules what any earthly nation demands or suggests.” After that statement, it usually followed up with a small smile and acknowledgment of the gravity of our decision to follow Jesus, and at other times it is met with squirming in people’s seats.

If we are a follower of Jesus, if we proclaim that he is Lord then we don’t get to dismiss what Jesus says because someone on MSNBC or Fox News says differently, we don’t get to disregard something Jesus says because something is our right as an American, we don’t even get to disregard what Jesus says because Moses or someone else in the Bible said differently. If Jesus is Lord then it doesn’t just impact our eternity but it impacts our today. If Jesus is Lord it doesn’t just impact our Sundays it impacts our everyday. If Jesus is Lord then it doesn’t just impact what we believe but it impacts how we live and treat others.

So, if someone looked deeply at your life who would they say is discipling you? What are you being discipled to?