Political Regrets

Don Wilton, pastor of a Baptist megachurch in South Carolina, recently announced his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, which gained a lot of attention since Romney has been trying to prove that evangelical Christians will support him despite his Mormonism. Four days later, however, Wilton withdrew his endorsement. In announcing the withdrawal, Wilton stated:

I made the mistake of not realizing the extent to which it would be used on a national basis. It was my personal error to agree to support Romney's campaign.

Until this incident I had never endorsed any person running for any elected office, Democrat or Republican. ... While I have had the privilege of meeting with a number of fine candidates over the years, I continue to believe my role and responsibility is to preach and teach the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen! It is good that this pastor learned the lesson to remain focused on sharing the love of Jesus instead of attempting to sway political elections. Hopefully, other religious leaders will learn from his mistake before making any public endorsements.

In related news, the new leadership of Focus on the Family is trying to move the organization back away from politics. Founder James Dobson has been getting more and more partisan in recent years, which had been hurting the good work of his ministry (I offered this critique in my book, For God's Sake, Shut Up!). Hopefully, the new leadership will be successful in getting the organization back on track to focus on more important work than politics. It is time for ministers and counselors to focus on their higher calling instead of reducing themselves to partisan pawns.