Shepherds were tough, hardy men. They guarded their flocks patiently, passionately, and—when necessary—brutally. Among the last things a ravenous wolf or thief would feel when threatening a flock of sheep would be the crushing blow of the shepherd’s staff or a rock striking their head. The protection of the flock was of paramount importance.
The soft shepherds leading most Christian churches today amount to little more than an ironic joke. With iced decaf soy lattes filling their Stanley mug, they seek after the faint applause of the godless elite. Our church leaders have abandoned their flocks to the spiritual and physical dangers of a fallen world.
Pulpits have long fallen silent on calling out the “fashionable” sins of the cultural elite—and when they do, it is brief and delivered with in apologetic tone. Far too many pastors have resorted to the safety of sermons that treat Scripture like a second-rate self-help book.
The left has been pulling out the threads of the nation’s moral fabric with the tacit approval of our clergy.
Jesus spoke forcefully against the political and religious corruption of His day. On page after page of the Gospels, we find Him speaking out against those ravenous wolves who used their power to abuse the people. In today’s Christian churches, such talk by Jesus Himself would have Him labeled a “troubler.”
Meanwhile, in the name of “peace and purity,” a sadly large number of pastors avoid confrontation by making a soft capitulation to the ruling elite. Criticism of the government is verboten; honest discussions about confiscatory taxes, abortion, and government schools pushing gender-bending ideology are avoided.
Too many pastors have become unwilling to speak uncomfortable truths in the face of governing power. They do not want to risk offending the sensibilities of the soft leftists in their congregations or the hard leftists in government bureaucracies.
Indeed, critiques of government policies are silenced in most 21st-century churches unless they can be framed in a way that denigrates social and political conservatives.
Congregations get fed an earful of false equivocation about the political parties, “whether you vote for a Democrat or a Republican…” Yet, never is voting for a gender-swapping, gun-grabbing, pro-abortion Democrat criticized as an exercise in Baal-worship, but most of these pastors will happily accuse their congregation of following a “false idol” if they vote for any Republican pledging to cut taxes or protect children.
Worst still, too many pastors have been actively ushering their flocks into the arms of thieves and the mouths of wolves. When they aren’t discouraging political engagement, they are pimping for government programs.
Shepherds should be made of better, sterner stuff. When the Hellenists were kicked from Israel in the second and first centuries B.C., it was a country priest and his sons who led the fight. The life of liberty in America began with exhortations from the pulpit. In the American Revolution, pastors stood literally on the front lines—often armed with a musket in one hand and a Bible in the other.
If liberty is to die here, that death will have been preceded by whimpers of ecclesiastical acquiescence.
We must not allow that to happen. Parishioners must demand unflinching leaders in their churches. Our times demand physical and mental boldness from our pastors, not spiritualized cowardice. We need the land’s pulpits filled with shepherds willing to kill the wolves threatening their flocks.
Now, more than ever, our republic needs a muscular church unafraid of earthly powers and principalities. America’s legacy as a self-governing people will survive and thrive only to the extent our churches are willing to speak truthfully, even forcefully, to and about secular government.
