But the word of God is not chained. - 2 Timothy 2.9

President Donald Trump gathered a covey of prominent Evangelical pastors in the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday, August 20. He used the huddle to tout his temporary suspension of the Johnson Amendment, which forbids churches from endorsing politicians at the peril of losing their tax exempt status. The President expressed the belief that the lack of this license explains the slump in church attendance in America.

"Maybe it's why you are very plateaued," he theorized. "I really believe you're plateaued because you can't speak. They really have silenced you. But now you're not silenced anymore." The President went on to warn his acolytes that they'd better get their flock to the poles in November because "you're one election away from losing everything you've got."

Politics aside, the President's pronouncement amounts to this: Political activism enlivens the church, so only a politician can give it life. 

Paul had a different take. From a windowless dungeon far below the street-level of first century Rome, he urged Timothy not to vote, but to voice the Christian hope: "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David - that is my gospel." For that gospel, Paul exulted, "I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the gospel is not chained." 

Paul faced execution, not tax exemption; his problem was not losing political headway, but losing his head. Yet Paul boldly declares that the Gospel, not the government, gives life to the church. Shackles jangled at his wrists and ankles as he side-hopped about his cell like a convict on a chain gang even as the message of the risen Christ ran rampant throughout Rome. Paul was imprisoned, but the gospel was not plateaued. He did not need Caesar to set him free in order to proclaim that Jesus makes us free indeed.

Religious liberty matters. Sincere Christians differ about politics and particular candidates. Vote your conscience. Just never make the mistake of letting an earthly leader tell you that the church's future rests in the hands of a political party or partisan agenda. The gospel is not chained, the power of God knows no plateaus, and the only maximum security that matters is the eternity security of a soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose. We are not one election from losing everything we've got; we the elect have got all the riches of God in Christ Jesus, and they can never be lost.