If you lose the plot in Australia and want to exit the pastoral ministry in a church in a blaze, you needn’t sacrifice a chicken during Communion, dance like David did, or start ending your prayers with, “In the Name of the Mother…”. All you need to do is invite a politician to come and use your pulpit as a campaign stop to generate votes.

Australian Baptists maintain a very strict separation between Church and State in this regard. I would never dream of having a politician visit a service during an election campaign let alone speak. Baptists in America [or at least some] think differently.

I have been watching the American election saga with interest, particularly when the main candidates are invited to speak at churches. Each Sunday sees a competition between the primary candidates in terms of which church they appear at and whose support they get.

I’m not sure if Americans are aware of it but the rest of the democratic world looks on in horror at the American political system. How is it that in the ‘world’s greatest democracy’, the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’, control of the superpower is shared between two dynastic families?

How is that in order to participate in the ‘democracy’ you don’t have a hope unless you have millions of dollars at your disposal? Current candidates are claiming a combined campaign funds of almost $US500 million.  At this point in 2004 observers were stunned that Democrat Howard Dean had amassed an astronomical US$41 million. Chicken feed compared to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who both claim in excess of $100 million.

It’s a system that is heavily influenced by lobby groups, pressure groups, and above all things: money. There aren’t any systems on the planet that are perfect, that’s not the point. The point is the pulpit is no place for partisan politics, and a church has no business advancing the cause of any politician or party. The Gospel must stay above partisanship, and the pre-eminence of the kingdom of God must be maintained over an above any secular cause, no matter how virtuous its policies may appear.

During our last election campaign we did have politicians gather in a church to be questioned by Christians on a range of topics [in relation to their policies]. The occasion was broadcast live to churches across Australia who subscribed to the live feed. That’s pretty much the extent of politics in the pulpit when it comes to Baptist churches in Australia. Long may it be that way.