{"id":1919,"date":"2020-10-23T19:46:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T02:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/?p=1919"},"modified":"2020-10-24T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T15:09:22","slug":"presidents-pastors-and-john-piper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidents, Pastors, and John Piper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Disgraced evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr.<\/a>, infamously noted in 2016 that we were not electing a \u201cpastor\u201d to the presidency, but a \u201ccommander\u201d in chief. And many evangelical leaders have echoed that sentiment. Of course, they never did before Trump, but whatever. That\u2019s just one aspect of the abject hypocrisy of 2016 on their part, so add it to the growing pot.<\/p>\n

Of course, the idea is we don\u2019t want political leaders who would operate under the constraints of Christian teaching or example. That\u2019s for pastors. No, we want mean \u201cSOBs<\/a>\u201d for political leaders.\u00a0 As long as they claim<\/em> to be \u201cpro-life\u201d and basically for us<\/em>, then we will over-look any dishonesty, racism, sexism, rudeness<\/a>, ignorance, and incompetency. In fact, even if they have been sued with Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, or accused of unwanted sexual contact\/assault<\/a>, these evangelicals would still be okay with the person as long as the right political ideological and policy boxes are checked off correctly. Got it.<\/p>\n

But here comes, no less, the well-respected evangelical leader\/pastor\/theologian John Piper<\/a> to basically say: Farewell Trump<\/em>. He brings a wrecking ball to the pragmatic, power-hungry, anti-Christian, immoral, and Machiavellian viewpoint just described.<\/p>\n

Piper echoes<\/a>\u00a0what he asserted back in 2017. Unlike Mohler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do I agree with Piper theologically? No. Do I respect him? You bet. He\u2019s broken ranks with these other evangelicals because he has a modicum of principle and decency. He is, at least, Biblically literate. He has integrity and wisdom. He\u2019s not a hypocrite. Can we say the same of the other evangelicals already mentioned? Let the reader decide. But, no, we can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t we want political leaders held to the same standard as Christian pastors? What would be wrong with that? Here are some of the criteria, edited for applicability:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer [pastor-priest], he [he\/she] desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach\u2026sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money\u2026\u201d (1 Tim 3)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, those sound like things we should look for in almost all leaders, religious or otherwise. The fact many evangelicals don\u2019t want those criteria applied to political leaders is troubling to say the least.<\/p>\n

Anyway, a shout-out to John Piper. Good for you man, good for you. Respect.<\/p>\n

I have a Patreon<\/a> Page\u2014please consider supporting my writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disgraced evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., infamously noted in 2016 that we were not electing a \u201cpastor\u201d to the presidency, but a \u201ccommander\u201d in chief. And many evangelical leaders have echoed that sentiment. Of course, they never did before Trump, but whatever. That\u2019s just one aspect of the abject hypocrisy of 2016 on their part, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[140,862,911,344,485],"class_list":["post-1919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics","tag-evangelicals","tag-john-piper","tag-political","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nPresidents, Pastors, and John Piper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Disgraced evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., infamously noted in 2016 that we were not electing a \u201cpastor\u201d to the presidency, but a \u201ccommander\u201d in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presidents, Pastors, and John Piper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Disgraced evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., infamously noted in 2016 that we were not electing a \u201cpastor\u201d to the presidency, but a \u201ccommander\u201d in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-24T02:46:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-24T15:09:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1004\/2020\/10\/trump-1976071_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"494\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/\",\"name\":\"Presidents, Pastors, and John Piper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-24T02:46:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-24T15:09:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Disgraced evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., infamously noted in 2016 that we were not electing a \u201cpastor\u201d to the presidency, but a \u201ccommander\u201d in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2020\/10\/23\/presidents-pastors-and-john-piper\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Presidents, Pastors, and John Piper\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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