A Little History
My Current Jobs
I am a youth and children’s pastor in the Midwest and I also serve as an assistant debate coach. I’m also beyond blessed to be a stay at home dad to my two year old daughter as well. I loved two things quite a bit growing up, and that competing in debate and going to church/youth group. The fact that as an adult I get to be a pastor and still involved in debate is a real blessing that I am grateful for. Being involved in debate though means I have followed politics somewhat closely for over a decade now while getting my ministry degree and working in churches.
How I Grew Up
I grew up in a conservative Christian environment. I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday, and went on any and every church excursion I could. I knew my 6th grade year I wanted to go into ministry, and that call has never gone away. In both my home and church I was mostly surrounded by life long Republicans. This includes my family and extended family. My uncle in particular was (and is still) very conservative, and was even involved in several local campaigns to help elect local and state Republicans. Given the love I had for debate and politics through high school we would spend quite a bit of time talking politics and the church. By the time I graduated high school and headed to college, I knew the majority of Republican talking points and professed the majority of them. Things would change as Trump entered the political scene and I grew in my faith while at college.
A Shift
The way I grew up instilled a couple of things in me about my political and Christian beliefs, two of those things being “Republicans are the party of family values” and “If you are a Christian, you vote Republican”. This belief system would be challenged when Trump entered the political scene. To me Trump represented everything opposite of family and Christian values. The way he talked about his exploits, women, his general political opponents, ect. all went against the beliefs and ways I was raised to treat and interact with people. Yet confoundingly he had overwhelming support from evangelical Christians and Republicans. This was the biggest push towards evaluating some of the values and beliefs I had been taught growing up. Certainly not my faith in Jesus Himself, but rather how we apply what He taught and commanded us to do.
Where I’ve Landed Today
Today my political leaning is that of a moderate who leans right. I’m still pro life, profess a traditional view of marriage, ect. Things that certainly wouldn’t allow me to be labeled a “liberal”. However, because I advocate for fair/better treatment of immigrants, am against folks going into medical debt, and challenge what Trump says and does I certainly receive quite a bit of push back. From my view though, the Republican party (both in perception and practice) is tied closely with the majority of evangelical Christians in this country. This makes me feel as though the “MAGA era” of politics has done significant damage to the witness of the church. So I started a podcast and this blog in hopes to communicate in a effective way how we as Christians should respond when our leaders (the ones we like and the ones we don’t) abuse Christ’s name to push a political agenda.
Silence Is Not An Option
My goal in this podcast and blog is the same goal I have in every other area of my life; to honor God in all that I do. I do believe part of that is challenging the current state of the Church’s role in politics. To bring to light how many Christians have traded the humble Christ-like love for political power. To challenge that we keep appearing as though we are more interested in legislating how people live verses doing the hard work of serving them as our neighbor. That means calling out our leaders sometimes, as well as ourselves when we don’t honor the image of God in how we live and interact with others. If you’ve made it this far, thanks again. I am excited to challenge us all (myself included) to see how God can best use us in this time and place.
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