Southern Baptist president calls on pastors to ‘step up’ ahead of midterm elections

Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice called on pastors across the country to “step up” into the political process as midterm elections near.

While some Christian leaders advise against wading into politics from the pulpit, Rice argues pastors have long played a key role in American politics.

Members of the theological and political left have shown no hesitance to mix religion with their politics and evangelicals should not either, he says.

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“Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should. 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 said.

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Rice lamented that many Christians have been encouraged in recent decades, from both external and internal forces, to “be more quiet” and “withdraw from the political process.”

“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,” Rice said. “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.”

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Rice highlighted abortion, the definition of marriage, gender identity and immigration as issues where Christians should feel compelled to vote in a certain way.

“These issues are deeply, profoundly theological issues. They go back to the creation; they go back to Genesis 1 and 2. They go back to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and our understanding of what God’s creative purpose is for us as human beings,” he said.

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Rice argued that Christians also face “manipulative” arguments when it comes to immigration. He admits that the immigration issue does present a “challenge” for Christians but argues there is nothing wrong with enforcing America’s laws.

“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, noting that Christians do more of that charity than any other group in the U.S.

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“But there is also the importance of the rule of law,” he continued. “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.”

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“That is very, very manipulative. No one would say that because you love people or care for people, you should leave the doors of your house unlocked, or you should open up the jail cells in your own community,” he said.