If a Church Leader Taught That Jesus Was a Socialist — and That You Should Be Too
From the Craig Bushon Show Media Team
America was founded upon a revolutionary principle: that free men and women, endowed by their Creator with free will and unalienable rights, would govern themselves under the rule of law rather than under the will of kings. The Constitution did not create those rights. It recognized them and established a constitutional republic through which citizens exercise self-government peacefully, responsibly, and lawfully.
For Christians, that creates both a privilege and a responsibility. Every election is more than a political contest. It is an exercise of stewardship. Every vote delegates authority to those who will write laws, appoint judges, protect liberty, preserve the Constitution, and shape the future of the Republic. Voting is not simply a right. It is one of the greatest responsibilities ever entrusted to ordinary citizens, and that responsibility makes what happens inside America’s churches especially important.
The Memphis Gathering
On Friday night, July 17, more than 1,000 people filled New Direction Christian Church in Memphis’s Hickory Hill neighborhood for a “Get Out the Vote” rally supporting State Rep. Justin Pearson’s campaign in Tennessee’s redrawn Ninth Congressional District, headlined by U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Summer Lee on the first day of early voting ahead of the August 6 election. In the days since, some on social media have claimed that attendees heard the message that Jesus Christ was a socialist — and that Christians, therefore, should be socialists too. If that happened, it goes to the heart of what this op-ed is about — and we are not here to argue the point either way.
The larger principle applies regardless of which party is standing at the microphone: if any pastor, priest, bishop, minister, or other Christian leader stands behind a pulpit and teaches that Jesus Christ unequivocally endorsed a modern political ideology, that leader assumes an extraordinary responsibility to demonstrate that claim from Scripture — not from contemporary politics, party platforms, or economic theory.
The pulpit exists to proclaim the Gospel, not to baptize political ideologies.
What This Op-Ed Is Not Arguing
Let us be clear about what this op-ed is not saying. Church leaders can absolutely speak about politics. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits it, and the phrase “separation of church and state” — which appears nowhere in the Constitution — has nothing to do with a pastor addressing the moral and political questions of the day. America’s pulpits have spoken to public issues since before there was a United States, and our view at the show is that they should keep doing so.
The problem arises when a church leader moves from speaking about politics to teaching an ideology in the name of God. Scripture instructs believers to be subject to the governing authorities and to live by the law of the land, and the law of the land in the United States is a constitutional representative republic — not socialism, not communism, not any other system. If a minister believes that system should change, the Constitution gives him the same lawful tools it gives every other citizen: persuasion, the ballot box, and the amendment process. But when a church leader teaches that God — or Jesus Christ Himself — has rendered a verdict that America’s political system is not correct and that another ideology is the divine standard, that leader is no longer teaching Scripture. He is attributing his own politics to God, and that is a misuse of the pulpit.
The Mission of the Church
That statement should not be controversial. The mission of the church is to preach salvation through Jesus Christ, teach the whole counsel of God, disciple believers, and proclaim biblical truth. It is not to transform the authority of Christ into a political endorsement for any modern ideology.
The concern is not whether Christians should care about public policy. They absolutely should. Christians should care about justice, mercy, honesty, compassion, stewardship, the sanctity of life, religious liberty, strong families, and the dignity of every human being. Scripture speaks to all of those principles. The concern is something different: whether the authority of Jesus Christ is being used to persuade believers that supporting a modern political ideology is itself a biblical requirement. That is where preaching can become political weaponization.
America’s constitutional republic depends upon citizens exercising their God-given free will through informed, lawful participation in self-government. Christians should bring biblical principles to the voting booth, but they should never be led to believe that Jesus Himself endorsed a modern political ideology unless that claim can be clearly established from Scripture. The authority of Christ is too sacred to be used as a political endorsement.
The Constitutional Path
The Constitution provides every American with the freedom to advocate for political change. Citizens are free to support conservative ideas, progressive ideas, libertarian ideas, socialist ideas, or any other political philosophy protected by the First Amendment. That freedom is one of America’s greatest strengths. But there is an equally important constitutional principle alongside it: if Americans wish to change the laws of the United States, the Constitution already provides the lawful path to do so. We vote. We persuade our fellow citizens. We elect representatives. Legislatures debate. Courts interpret the law. Constitutional amendments can be proposed and ratified. The Founders deliberately created a system that allows dramatic political change without abandoning the rule of law, and that system depends entirely upon the free will and responsibility of the American people.
For Christians, this should sound familiar. Throughout Scripture, God grants human beings the ability to choose while holding them accountable for those choices. Free will carries responsibility. Decisions have consequences. America reflects that same principle politically by placing responsibility for self-government into the hands of its citizens, and the ballot box is one of the greatest expressions of that responsibility.
That is precisely why the church must be careful not to replace biblical teaching with political messaging. A pastor’s authority comes from faithfully teaching God’s Word — not from attaching the name of Jesus Christ to modern political movements.
The pulpit is not the place to preach socialism in the name of Jesus Christ, nor capitalism, nor any other economic system dressed up as doctrine. If a minister believes socialism is the best political system, he is free to advocate that opinion as an American citizen, just as any other citizen is free to advocate for the political philosophy of his or her choosing. But when that opinion is presented from the pulpit as though it were the teaching of Jesus Christ, it crosses a line. In our view, that is an inappropriate use of biblical authority. The church’s mission is to proclaim the Gospel, faithfully teach the whole counsel of God, and equip believers to think biblically — not to present modern political ideologies as if they carry the authority of Scripture.
Some will disagree with that conclusion, and that is their constitutional right. Our concern is not whether ministers have political opinions. Every American has political opinions. Our concern is whether Scripture is being faithfully taught or whether Scripture is being used to advance conclusions that originate in modern political philosophy rather than in the biblical text itself. Christians should leave church understanding God’s Word more clearly — not believing that Jesus has become the spokesman for a twenty-first-century political ideology.
What the Church Has Always Done Best
America’s churches have played extraordinary roles throughout our nation’s history. They helped inspire the movement for independence, fueled abolition, strengthened the civil rights movement, built hospitals, founded universities, cared for the poor, and ministered to generations of Americans. The church has always been at its best when it faithfully proclaimed biblical truth and then allowed transformed believers to carry those principles into every area of public life. That model remains just as powerful today. The church should shape consciences with God’s Word — not replace God’s Word with modern political ideologies.
As citizens of a constitutional republic, Christians possess enormous freedom. They can campaign. They can vote. They can run for office. They can petition government. They can peacefully advocate for changing laws they believe are unjust. That is exactly how constitutional government is designed to work. But they should pursue those changes through the constitutional process — not by presenting modern political ideologies as though they were the express teachings of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel does not need a political party to validate it, and no political movement should seek to borrow the authority of Christ to validate itself. The Republic entrusted Americans with self-government, and the church was entrusted with the Gospel. When either institution abandons its proper mission, both are diminished.
At the Craig Bushon Show, we often say that the truth is not hate speech. The truth, however, carries responsibility — for every citizen to think critically before voting, for every Christian to test what they hear against Scripture, and for every minister to remember that the authority of the pulpit belongs to Jesus Christ, not to any modern political ideology.
Reading between the lines, the real issue is not whether Christians should influence America. They should. The real question is whether America is being asked to follow Christ — or whether Christ is being enlisted to serve a political movement. That distinction may determine not only the future of the church, but the future of the constitutional republic that protects its freedom.
Disclaimer
This article is an opinion and educational analysis from the Craig Bushon Show Media Team. It is intended to encourage thoughtful discussion about constitutional government, civic responsibility, and the relationship between biblical teaching and modern political ideology. It is not intended to attack any individual church, pastor, denomination, congregation, or political party.
References to recent public events and statements are based on publicly available reporting and public commentary at the time of publication. Where differing accounts exist regarding what was said or the context in which it was said, this article addresses the broader constitutional and theological questions those reports raise rather than making definitive factual findings about disputed statements.
The theological views expressed are the editorial opinions of the Craig Bushon Show Media Team and are offered for public discussion, not as official doctrine of any church or denomination. Readers are encouraged to examine Scripture for themselves, review the historical record, consult the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, and thoughtfully evaluate the issues presented before reaching their own conclusions.
