Most of the above is just bunk to find a way to try to tell your congregation that they should vote the way you'd like them to. Why is it bunk?
1. Our freedom as Americans - Christians are to be Christians first and Americans second. And, Pastors are to answer to their call first and to the freedoms second. The call to preach is a call to interpret the scriptures for God's people. It isn't and avenue for us to push our own opinions or use our pastoral power to campaign for a candidate.
2. Pulpit Freedom - This one is a real misnomer. Pastors are not free in the pulpit. We aren't free to preach our own opinions. We aren't free to use the pulpit as a soap box for subject matter outside of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When a Christian pastor stands in the pulpit she or he has a sacred responsibility to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else.
3. I have a responsibility to my congregation to tell them what is right - Now how paternalistic is that? Congregations of Christians are thinking people who also have the Holy Spirit. Pastors are not the spiritual nanny for the congregation. Again, it is the gospel we are called to preach. We aren't their to interpret partisan politics, explain the economy, or tell them how or what to think. We are there to "rightly divide the word of truth."
Does this mean that I and other pastors shouldn't have political opinions? No indeed! I have my own opinions and have already voted my conscience in early Iowa voting. What it does mean is that I don't have the right to act as if my opinions are the same as God's opinions, my church's opinions, or my parishioners opinions. I only have the right to speak for God where God speaks. And, even then, pastors must do so with humility recognizing the fallible nature of our understanding of the will of the Almighty.
