<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n I don’t remember There were three Compliments of Barack Compliments of Sarah The second category The third pastor problem All three Pastor Voters were faced The result was that within the heightened emotions of an election campaign, voters were introduced to the The reason why this Religion is very The question remains \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t remember hearing the exact term before – but it is clear that the Pastor Problem is here to stay. There were three categories of pastor problems in the 08 elections. The most closely watched and problematic were the personal pastors of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.\u00a0 Compliments of Barack Obama, the American voter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhearing the exact term before – but it is clear that the Pastor Problem<\/i> is here to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncategories of pastor problems in the 08 elections. The most closely watched
\nand problematic were the personal pastors
\n<\/i>of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nObama, the American voter was introduced to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity
\nUnited Church of Christ, whose famous post 9\/11 phrase “God Damn America” almost
\nbrought down the Obama campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nPalin, the American voter was introduced to Rev. Larry Kroon of Wassila Bible
\nChurch who brought in a pastor who prayed over Gov. Palin against witchcraft
\nand introduced David Brickner, the head of Jews for Jesus, who suggested that
\nPalestinian attacks might be God’s judgment on the Jewish people for their
\nrejection of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nof pastor problem was represented by the sought after, received and then
\nrejected endorsement of John McCain by public
\npastors<\/i> who, it was hoped, would rally the base of the Republican Party.\u00a0 <\/span>Compliments of John McCain the American
\nvoter was introduced to John Hagee, who called the Catholic Church the Great
\nWhore; and Rod Parsely who called Islam the greatest religious enemy of our
\ncivilization and the world.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwas the oppositional pastor<\/i> in which
\na candidate’s own religious leader rallied in opposition to his candidacy. So compliments
\nof Joe Biden the American voter was introduced to Bishop Joseph F. Martino, of
\nthe Diocese of Scranton who said that Biden was not eligible to receive communion
\nin his diocese because of the candidate’s pro-choice stance.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nProblems – the personal, the public, and the oppositional were major story lines
\nfor the campaign.\u00a0 <\/span>Why?<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwith an election that had no incumbent and so understanding the candidate’s character
\nand worldview became even more important in the voter’s decision. This was
\ncoupled with the internet and cable TV’s hunger to fill their blank screens in
\na 24\/7 news market. Most importantly, advances in technology produced easily
\ncarried cameras to record, and YouTube to broadcast, footage of pastors in action directly to voters around the country beyond the power of campaigns to contain or explain.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nworldview of traditions that were foreign to them without context or history.\u00a0 <\/span>The most politically dangerous for the
\ncandidates proved to be the Jeremiad where the pastor proclaims that God is
\ndamning this country or that people for their sins.\u00a0 <\/span>This is pretty common among the prophets of the Bible (it is
\nnamed after the prophet Jeremiah), and if there is one thing that Wright,
\nHagee, and Kroon had in common is that they appear to understand themselves as prophets
\nlifting their voice in the wilderness of sinful America.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nwas particularly lethal for the candidates was that the Jeremiads of their
\npastors were perceived to be directed against entire voting demographics:
\nBrickner aganst the Jews, Hagee against the Catholic Church, Pasley against
\nIslam, and Wright, against White America.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This perception of attack was then exploited by the
\nopposition for full effect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\ncomplicated and full of symbols that mean something from within a community but
\ndon’t always translate to those outside.\u00a0
\n<\/span>A house of worship is much more than just the pastor and many of us
\nspend half our time in the pews silently disagreeing with what is said from the
\npulpit. Evaluating a candidate through their pastor is, at best, an imperfect
\nmechanism for understanding what a candidate believes or how a candidate will
\nact.\u00a0 <\/span>Pastors can and should have
\npolitical views.\u00a0 <\/span>Religion is about
\nmany things but ethics and values, both private and public, are intrinsic to the project. \u00a0<\/span>If there is a lesson for pastors it is
\nthat rants against entire segments of the population ultimately are rejected by
\nthe American people and do not have a place in our collective politic.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhow aspiring political figures will respond to the pastor problem of election
\n08. The bar has been raised.\u00a0 <\/span>It is
\nnot enough to attend a place of worship – you have to vet it.\u00a0 <\/span>My worry is that our future political
\nleaders will begin to choose houses of worship that do not challenge them, but
\nwhose innocuous message week after week can be boiled down to Love is Good, God
\nis Good, America is Good – Amen.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n