pastoring and politics

I appreciated this from Dan Darling about the blurred lines between pastoring and politics:

Yes, the gospel is inherently political. It is the declaration that there is another king and another kingdom, that all the accumulated power in this world, in capitals and board rooms and palaces, is but a temporary stewardship that will one day give way to Christ’s ultimate reign.

To follow Jesus means you only render to Caesar what is due to him and nothing more. To follow Jesus means you love sinners but tell them to sin no more and even (sometimes publically) repent of your own. To follow Jesus, means, like John the Baptist, you will rebuke the faulty character of those in power while they call for your head.

To gather every week with brothers and sisters and declare Christ as the ultimate ruler of heaven and earth was and is a political statement. To say that every person alive was created by God with dignity and purpose is a political statement. To say that God is drawing a new creation people from every nation, tribe, and tongue is an inherently political statement.