Southern Baptist Head Urges Christians to Engage Politically
Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice urged pastors across the nation to engage politically ahead of the midterm elections. His comments come as some pastors refrain from politics and many Christians fail to show up at the ballot box.
“Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should,” he said. “Because there are many political issues that are, at their heart, theological issues and moral issues that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we believe people need to know in order to flourish personally and as a culture.”
“I think the pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history,” Rice added, detailing their role in the American Revolution.
Explaining that many on the left are more politically engaged than conservative Christians, Rice said, “Now, the interesting thing is that those on the theological and political left did not [withdraw], and they had no intention of doing so. And in fact, statistics show that people on the political and theological left are actually more politically engaged than those on the right. So what you had was, for a period of time, I felt like you had an almost a vacuum that kind of developed, a silence that was there with a lack of Christian leaders leaning in.”
The pastor noted that many political issues, such as abortion, marriage, gender, and immigration, are biblical in nature. “There is a value of compassion, a value of wanting to care for the least of these people who are poor and oppressed and wanting to help,” Rice said, emphasizing, “But there is also the importance of the rule of law. The protection of people who are in this country. And what you’ve had is sometimes a very cynical use by some people in power of trying to manipulate Christians by saying, since you must demonstrate compassion, therefore you must embrace open immigration, or you must not insist on the enforcement of the immigration laws.”
“A person can love people, care for people, and also believe there ought to be a jail here in our county and in our city for people who do wrong,” he added.
Other Christian leaders and organizations urged Christians to vote ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election. Decision Magazine, a Christian publication affiliated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, launched a voting guide at the time, which explained that Christians have a “responsibility to vote for leaders whose views most closely align with God’s Word,” and detailed the differences between the Democrat and Republican Party platforms.