I was listening to a pastor preach last week and for the first time since I had begun attending the services (due to the non-stop urging of my sister) I was finally able to hear what he was actually saying.  I could finally see and hear how he was pouring his heart into this particular sermon and I realized that this was exactly what he had been doing for the past few weeks that I had attended church services.  But I could not hear him before because I was far too busy judging him.

You see, from the beginning, this young pastor that was preaching had some mannerisms about him that I had immediately locked in on and this is what I was observing and evaluating very carefully instead of listening to what he had to say…until he preached the sermon that I was listening to that day.  I had locked in on his gesticulation, facial expressions and how he walked when he moved around the pulpit including even his slightest body language.  And get this, I thought, he even plays the bongo drums at every service during the ‘worship by music’ portion of the service!  I was really into judging mode!  And instantly, I completely had this guy figured out, right?

Chief among the many reasons as to why I was doing this was because although my parents had raised me in the church, somewhere along the way after I had become an adult I had strayed away from it and become more involved in secular activities.  Though I was not completely immersed in these activities I had delved deep enough into them to where, in my mind, I knew the game and knew how players play.  And up until I heard the previously referred to sermon entitled “Stay Focused”, again – in my mind, this preacher could certainly have a ‘P’ associated with his name but the ‘P’ should not stand for preacher, it should stand for player.  But as I listened to his sermon I suddenly realized that I could apply it directly to me.  I was so busy focusing in on the ancillary stuff that needed to be peeled away before one could receive the actual message that I had failed to receive that message…until the sermon that he preached that day.

So here we are again where readers might say, this guy is all over the place.  His blog is purported to be about politics.  He has talked about sports and country music before and now here he is talking about some preacher that he happened to hear preach!  Where can he possibly be going with this article?!  Well, if you have hung in there long enough to get to this point, if you will hang on a bit longer I will tell you where I am going with it.  Have you noticed how much more lately that ‘church and state’ and sports have been dragged onto the national political stage?  I won’t go into the details of the sermon that I heard (I reckon you are elated about that) because in most cases, for obvious reasons, church leadership – no matter the denomination –  does not want to become entangled in politics.

Notwithstanding that I demur when faced with the decision as to whether to get into the details of the sermon that I heard, I will tell you that this pastor said “I tell people that I am not a Democrat.  And when I do that they automatically assume that I am a Republican (which is what I assumed) and I tell them that I am not a Republican; I tell them I am a Christian!”  Again, I had made an assumption.  I assumed that he would say that he is an Independent. He went on to explain why he is not a Democrat or Republican but I will spare you the details of that since, as previously mentioned,  many of you likely asked already why am I writing about a preacher and preaching when this is supposed to be a political blog.

My point is that, right now, on the political stage ‘church and state’ is simmering just beneath the surface of conversations at the federal level of government. And sports has recently been dragged out into the open and onto that stage – in the case of some of those involved, kicking and screaming.  Neither wants anything to do with this political hot potato regarding the need to force athletes to honor the flag and national anthem that Mr. Trump is championing.  Many Americans are also aware that Evangelicals voted heavily in favor of Mr. Trump during the 2016 election.  They are also aware that during the primaries and the general elections Mr. Trump employed a divide and conquer approach in his effort to win and that he is continuing to employ that method now that he is in office.  Although up until this point he has not openly worked to use religion the same way that he has used race, the rich versus the poor and now sports to divide America, nothing indicates that he has precluded the open use of it as a part of his effort to hold on to his power.

It is important that I explicitly  state that the fact that I used the previously mentioned young pastor’s sermon to emphasize how American voters must remain focused and not get lost in the smoke and mirrors of the politics of either party as America moves forward is in no way meant to state or imply that this pastor supports or advocates for any party.  Instead, it is meant to help all voters to realize how we can and why we must remain focused on America and its citizens and what is in our collective best interest; why we must remain focused on the real needs of America and the true best way for her to move forward based on her citizens’ collective needs.

Finally, in case that some of you might be interested, I apologized to that pastor even though I had never previously verbalized my judgmental thoughts to him.  Not only did he graciously accept my apology, but he thanked me and said that I had made his day.  As some folks might say, who would have thunk it?!  Maybe this same kind of thing can happen in the current political atmosphere that exists in America if we can somehow find a way to have reasonable discourse so that we can at least begin to peel away those ancillary things that are hiding the real problems that our country needs to deal with.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line