SuperDave Considers Rev. Hamilton And Midterm Politics

Maybe because so many years watching local politics has taught us not to believe in much of anything AND we've consistently been disappointed by the failings of our spiritual betters . . . Longtime readers know that TKC has a weakness for public considerations of the eternal and deliberations over faith & morals. 

Accordingly . . .

Once again for #TBT we share a word from an old friend who ponders faith life and a current dilemma confronting Kansas voters . . . 

SuperDave At The Intersection of Church and Politics: Do They Belong Together? 

Do you remember Jim Jones, Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, Peter Popoff, Paul Crouch Sr. Eddie Long, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and Jim Bakker who were all preachers of God's word and some research along with solid evidence shows they really were not honest so called preachers after all? Who is Adam Hamilton? How and why is Hamilton any better per say than many of these other so called preachers who it seems shamed the churches? Mega Religious Leaders have promised salvation, healing, and divine blessings—while secretly living in luxury, hiding scandals, and deceiving millions through spiritual manipulation. Some have gotten the masses to send them huge amounts of money so they could live the good life while you don't. Why are people not ripping into Hamilton's background, his homes, and his lifestyle, same as he is attacking Roger Marshall? Why do his followers scream "Shame On You" at Marshall simply because he is trying to collect on long overdue medical bills same as any other doctor does or any business for that manor. They turn them over for collection. Do you not think the New York Times does not turn past due bills for ads over to collection when they don't get paid? Is Hamilton as squeaky clean as so many believe he is? Is Team Hamilton running a shaming campaign only? Inquiring minds really want to know?

I would think many would question why a man of God would want to enter into politics that so many think is corrupt. Those called by God to serve him as pastors must devote themselves to doing just that. In fact, looking from the standpoint of the Bible pastors are not to focus their labors on political activism or as in campaigning for political office or extensive campaigning for other candidates as it would be a denial of their vocation as pastors.

The pastor’s responsibility is to those of the church he ministers at and the politician’s responsibility is politics.

But with a so-called 99% literacy rate and high GPA per capita of the residents of this country I want to understand why people send money and keep creating these millionaire pastors over say supporting a smaller more neighborhood/home-style church where let's face it everyone knows your name. Ever see a millionaire pastor living in a modest home located in a modest neighborhood? Do they drive around in Nissan Sentras or a Hyundai Elantra? No, they have Escalades and fly around in private jets and live in mansions with maids and chefs. They have multiple church locations and I'm not talking about a modest looking church but a huge very high dollar building needing a huge budget and staff just to maintain it. If you have ever been to a mega church, you would notice that they often stray from traditional church architecture in favor of large complexes. Word has it that Hamilton's church spent 90 million dollars on the Leawood Ks complex.  90 million dollars folks for a church, that’s 90 million dollars for a place that’s empty what, 80% of the time? From what I can find the operating budget for that complex is 25 million plus a year. If a church has the means to keep those kinds of money flowing into the coffers you can understand how Hamilton is able to load up his campaign fund with record amounts in donations. A question I hear a lot is how much of that money is coming from outside sources? Seems that elections are now decided too often by how many supporters and money a candidate can collect from outside the area they are seeking office for. Now that would be a great story for the New York Times to do.

It seems to me the word of God gets lost in the word of needing more money to support these huge networks and churches that do what? Do you know that if all that money collected by say a very large church was to be donated directly by the congregation directly to the organizations needing it that group would actually get more in funds for their needs? Why do you ask? It's simple, the church will keep what they think they need for their million dollar operations and send I'm going to guess maybe and I found this little tidbit, around 11% of a typical mega church's budget goes to external missions and aid for needy groups, while the remaining funds support internal church operations.

Critics and theologians warn that aligning a church with a specific political party or candidate compromises its spiritual message and alienates people.
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