Preaching Politics

Posted on August 13, 2026 
Filed under Culture wars

At AP, the Presbyterian journal, David Robertson addresses a challenge faced by preachers –

“The lady was quite insistent on speaking to me. She wanted to tell me what was wrong with my sermon. ‘I was going along fine until you brought politics into it, and then I switched off.’ ‘What politics did I bring?’ ‘When you started speaking about gender issues.’

We had been looking at Psalm 12 and talking about how there is no one who speaks truth, and how in today’s society we are increasingly living by lies. As well as mentioning the lies told in the church, I’d spoken of the lies told in the society, and given five examples of each. One of these is the lie that you can change gender, and that gender is mutable, purely a social construct. I referenced the upcoming census in which that is taught, but it is a lie, and it is a harmful lie.

Was I bringing politics into the pulpit? And should I have avoided doing so? There is a real difficulty here. The world has changed. …”

– Read it all here.