-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Nicholas A Pearce, Race and the Power of Sermons on American Politics, by R. KHARI BROWN, Sociology of Religion, Volume 83, Issue 3, Autumn 2022, Pages 411–413, https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srac006
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Though many fiercely contend that there should be an unambiguously clear separation between Church and State, the influence of the American pulpit on local and national politics is undeniable. Just as the prophets of ages past who stood as God’s mouthpieces before the leaders of their respective times and faced persecution for doing so, the contemporary pulpit remains a dangerous place for many pastors who have sought to exhort their congregations to let their personal faith inform their public works—whether in terms of being vaccinated and wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or standing boldly against anti-Black racism.
At the same time, others of today’s preachers have abdicated the moral responsibility to speak truth to power, motivated by fear of political consequences or angry notes from congregants accusing the pastor of abandoning the Gospel’s message by opining on the issues of the day. While America is certainly not a theocracy, many of today’s politicians and today’s prophets are so closely aligned and comfortably connected with one another that it can be difficult at times to tell exactly who is guiding whom—the prophets influencing the politicians or vice versa. In either case, the fact that the American pulpit and American politics are interconnected is undeniable. What is equally undeniable is the impact of one key factor on the nature of the relationship between the pulpit and politics: race.
