When I worked in politics my boss was fond of saying, “The Lord baptized me, not my voting record.”  He wanted to assert that every vote he cast wasn’t a vote for the religious right (or left).  He was voting as a Christian, certainly, but he wanted to leave room for Christians to disagree on numerous policy decisions.  I think this was a wise approach.

Wills in the article you linked to, Jonathan, goes too far.  I see no need for Christians in society to separate their Christianity from their political involvment.  If Christians want to engage in politics with explicitly Christian reasoning then that is their constitutional right and it is the constiutional right of our atheist, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu friends to reject that reasoning.  I don’t see this as the imposition of a theocracy–I see this as Christians having their say in the marketplace of ideas.  He goes on to say that posting the Ten Commandments (I suppose he means on public property) is taking the Lord’s name in vain because Jesus never meant for the Bible to be used politically.  While I would not encourage the enforcement of the posting of the Ten Commandments, I certainly don’t think it is rises to the level of taking the Lord’s name in vain.   Why?  Because we just can’t say that Jesus rejected politics since His teachings have a dramatic effect on how we approach not just our personal lives but our public lives.  David Cook, a Christian ethicist at Oxford wrote:

If we believe that all of life belongs to God, we cannot neglect involvement in politics. Christians often hesitate because politics is a “dirty business”; but business will not improve until and unless Christians bring a different style and content to political life. The example of Wilberforce and his efforts to abolish the slave trade show the influence for good that Christians can have in politics. As citizens of earth, as well as of heaven, we cannot really complain about the political leaders we have, nor the decisions they make, unless we are willing to elect women and men of integrity who support policies that restrain evil and reinforce goodness and ourselves be involved in the political process, both by exercising our voting rights and opportunities and by encouraging suitable people into the vocation of politics.

This still leaves open questions of whether we vote for a particular kind of person as our political representative or for or against a party with a slate of policies we endorse or reject. Political decisions affect every aspect of our lives from taxation to issues like stem-cell research, abortion, war, and trade. Scripture is concerned with the totality of life and rule. (”What’s Your Attitude Toward Politics, Kairos Journal)

To your question, Jonathan, I think elders and pastors need to be very cautious about commending candidates and political policies from the pulpit and privately lest we give the impression that our opinion is somehow the Christian opinion.  However, there are times when the church must speak out.  There are issues that the Bible makes black and white (see Cook above).  There are political platforms that are inexcusable from a Christian perspective.

These are thorny issues that I must leave alone for now.  However, I didn’t want your question to be left hanging, alone and untouched in cyberspace any longer.

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