When I was asked to speak on the topic "Power of the Pulpit" I could not help but think about a term that originated with Theodore Roosevelt when he was President of the United States. He referred to the White House as a "Bully Pulpit," meaning a terrific platform from which one could persuasively advocate the truth.
In a real sense I believe that every church pulpit should be a "Bully Pulpit." I am reminded of the story of a little boy who was talking to his mom, and he said, "Mother, may I be a preacher when I grow up?" His mother said, "Well, I suppose you can, but are you sure that's what you want to be?" He said, "Well, since I've got to go to church anyhow, and since I hate to sit still and be quiet, I'd rather go to church and stand up and holler."
Well, even though we do more than just "stand up and holler" I believe it is important for every preacher to recognize the power of the pulpit and the ability of the pulpit to influence both individuals and the community.
I have been asked to speak particularly to the topic of the role of the church in the community and the nation as a source of moral power. Therefore, I would like to submit that the church and the pulpit has been, and still is, the center of the moral conscience of the community and the nation. The reason the pulpit is so powerful and necessary, is the inability to have a consistent morality and a consensus of virtues apart from religious faith.
Now I know that is a controversial statement, but I'm not the one that made it. It was George Washington who said, "Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion."1 Like it or not, Washington was right because in the history of mankind it has never happened. Morality has never been maintained consistently without the influence of religious faith.
Indeed, Washington goes on to say, "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on the minds of peculiar structure, reason, and experience, both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."2
Morality, without God, is nothing more than personal opinion and subjective standards that blow with the winds of public opinion, or private proclivity. You may have heard of the McGuffey Readers. McGuffey was a Presbyterian clergyman and an educator, president of a college, but one of the most important contributions he made was his Readers which had an enormous impact on this country in the 19th Century. First published in 1836, over 120 million copies of these books were sold, and they strengthened the moral backbone of America for almost 100 years. McGuffey said this:
Religion is a social concern; for it operates powerfully on society, contributing in various ways to its stability and prosperity. Religion is not merely a private affair; the community is deeply interested in its diffusion; for it is the best support of the virtues and principles on which the social order rest….
Erase all thought and fear of God from a community and selfishness and sensuality will absorb the whole man. Appetite knowing no restraint and suffering having no solace or hope, would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws. Virtue, duty, principle would be mocked and spurned as unmeaning sounds. A sordid self-interest would supplant every other feeling; and man would become in fact what the theory of atheism declares him to be, a companion for brutes.3
1. THE NEED FOR TRUTH
Now I am making this assertion and these statements in a time when I realize that tolerance has been elevated over truth and political correctness has been elevated above principled conviction. It is not popular for the pulpiteer today to paint in colors of black and white; people prefer a subtle gray.
I read the tragic story not long ago of an 18 year old young man named Kevin Farr. He had just been bowling with his brother, and as they parted ways, he said, "Tell Mom I'll be home by midnight, I don't want her to worry.
It was 11:55 PM when Farr and two teenage buddies, driving in his Camero into a country crossroads, ran past a stop sign that lay unseen on the ground. A semi-trailer truck hauling phosphate slammed into the car killing Farr and his two companions both also 18 years of age. The impact of the collision shook residents from their beds more than a mile away.
What caused this accident? Three young people, ages 20 and 21, were found guilty of pulling down that stop sign as a prank and causing the deaths of those three teenagers. I am afraid that when pulpits are silent, or fearful, or even compromising in the moral and ethical topics they have to address, moral stop signs are uprooted and society begins to crash against the rock of their own immorality.
As I speak on the power of the pulpit today you must understand that I have to address the topic as one who believes in absolute truth; as one who believes that there is a standard of right and wrong that is unchanging, and not subject to polls, opinions, legal briefs, shifting mores, or focus groups.
Outside of all I have read in the Bible, the greatest single statement I have ever read or heard in my life, was made by the great Quaker, William Penn. This is what William Penn said: "Right is right even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it." William Penn said that because he believed there were standards of right and wrong that transcended human thinking and imagination. He believed, as I believe, that those standards are found in the Bible.
Let me make something very plain. The power of the pulpit has as its source the message it proclaims. But the message it proclaims has as its source the authority on which it is based. That's why the power in the pulpit must preeminently and eventually come from the Bible. That is why I believe that I can make the case that the power of the pulpit has not only been a great influence in our nation, but is an influence that we continuously need today.
a. BIBLE AND CIVILIZATION
Our civilization was founded on the Bible, and on the preaching of this Bible as truth. No less than Yale Professor, William Lyons Phelps, once said, "Our civilization is founded upon the Bible. More of our ideas, our wisdom, our philosophy, our literature, our art, our ideals, come from the Bible than from all other books combined.4
Abraham Lincoln once received, he said, one of the most cherished gifts he was ever given. It was a Holy Bible given to him by a delegation of black Americans. The date was September 7, 1864, and on that occasion Lincoln made this statement: "In regard to this great Book, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to men. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book, but for it we could not know right from wrong."5
b. THE BIBLE AND ETHICS
Let me give you a practical example or two of the power of the pulpit in both our past and even up to this present day. We see the power of the pulpit in the issue of slavery. It is true that there were some slaveholders, and it's painful to admit even some pastors in the South, who used the Bible to justify slavery.
But another fact that needs to be known is that the pulpit and the Bible played a major role in the dissolution of this terrible institution. For example, two-thirds of the members of the Abolition Society, prior to the Civil War, were ministers of the gospel.6
Great men like Beecher in America, and Wilburforce in England, thundered from both pulpit and platform that slavery was evil and was contrary to every person being created in the image of God.
c. THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY
But as I speak about the power of the pulpit, obviously I cannot divorce the pulpit from the church. I was also asked to speak on the topic of the effect of the church on a community. I will share some things with you that may interest you and might ignite some of you in terms of your interest in attending church. Because there are a host of benefits that accord to one who attends church regularly.
Churchgoers are more likely to have stable happy marriages that endure the test of time.
Regular attenders at church experience less depression, more self esteem, few out-of-wedlock births, less drug abuse, fewer suicides, less crime, and fewer instances of divorce.
Regular churchgoers live longer, have less heart disease, and a quicker rate of recovery from illness.
Finally, church attendance and religious belief is a major cause of strength and recovery from the damage that is caused by alcoholism, drug addiction, and marital breakdown.7
US News and World Report had a cover story not long ago with a picture of a church and this headline: "The Faith Factor: Can Churches Cure America's Social Ills?" In that article they asked and answered this very interesting question: "What is the surest guarantee that an African-American urban youth will not fall to drugs or crime? Regular church attendance turns out to be a better predictor than family structure or income according to a study by Harvard University Economist, Richard Freeman. Call it the ‘Faith Factor.'"8
d. THE CHURCH AND AMERICA
Let me take a moment and illustrate just even to this very second, how the power of the pulpit and the Bible and the church affect even our daily lives. There are five major areas of our government that were a direct result of the Bible, the church, and the pulpit.
For example, we are a government by law. The whole purpose of the Constitution was to institute a government under the rule of law. That is why we are not a democracy. We are a republic that is governed by the rule of law. Where did our founding fathers get that idea? From the Bible. They understood that Israel itself was a nation under the rule of law called The Ten Commandments.
Our Declaration of Independence tells us that all men are created equal. That is, neither the state nor the law was to be a respecter of persons. Now that was a radical departure from what they had known, because in England the citizens didn't have equality. Someone from virtually any background could be elected to the House of Commons, but only the nobility could be elected to the House of Lords. But here we believe that every man and woman are equal. Where do they get that idea? The Bible says in Acts 10:34, "God shows no partiality."
We are told we have certain inalienable rights. Where did that idea come from? Again, our founding fathers believed that our rights came from God and the Bible. For example, in the commandment "Thou shalt not steal" we find the right to private property. In the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" we find the sanctity of life, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The very concept of liberty is what America is all about. But most people don't realize that the source of this was the Bible and the pulpit. Paul said, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor. 3:17)
There is the concept of the separation of powers. As you know we have a legislative branch, we have a judicial branch, and we have an executive branch. Where did our founding fathers come up with that idea? From the Bible. Isa. 33:22 says, "For the Lord is our judge (the judicial), the Lord is our lawgiver (the legislative), the Lord is our King (the executive).
e. THE PULPIT AND LEADERSHIP
I have shared all of this to hopefully illustrate that the power of the pulpit and the preaching of the Bible extends to our daily lives in ways that we do not even realize.
But let me close by discussing the ultimate power of the pulpit. An event occurred on January 21, 1930, which offers an illustration of what it means to be a wonderful instrument of power in this world, communicating the word of the Lord to a needy generation. On that date the most far reaching radio broadcast up to that time was scheduled; it was the message of Great Britain's King George at the opening of the London Naval Arms Conference. The whole world was to hear the voice of the King for the first time. Citizens of the United States almost missed it however.
Just before the King was to speak a member of the control room staff at CBS Radio tripped over a wire and broke it severing connections. Harold Vivian, chief control operator, immediately grasped the ends of the broken wires, one in each hand, and restored the circuit. The volts of electricity shook his arms and went through his entire body, but he held on until new wires were connected. The King's message went out across the sea to an entire nation through the tingling body of Harold Vivian.9 That is the ultimate power of the pulpit. When through God's word and God's grace we can take the hand of sinful man and join it to the hand of a holy God.
No one will ever forget the terrible tragedy at Columbine High School in Colorado. One of the young ladies killed, as you know, was a Christian girl named Rachel Scott who died because she refused to deny her faith in God. In effect, the school room became her pulpit.
Her father, Darrell, testifying before a House Sub-Committee, read this poem that he composed following his daughter's murder:
Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air,
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die,
You seek for answers everywhere
And ask the question: "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws
through legislative creed,
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need. 10
God is what we need. As long as we need God we will need power in the pulpit and the power of the pulpit.
1. "Washington's Farewell Address," Reproduced in Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 15:26
2. Quoted in Federer, America's God and Country, 661.
3. William H. McGuffey, The Eclectic Fourth Reader: Containing Elegant Extracts in Pros and Poetry from the Best American and English Writers: Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1838, 143-144.
4. Quoted in Lee Williams, No Room for Doubt, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1977), p. 36.
5. Miller, Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, 5:209.
6. Liberty, September/October, 1984.
7. Jane Chastain, Dispatches, 22 May 1996.
8. Joseph P. Shapiro with Andrea R, Wright, "Can Churches Save America?" US News and World Report, 9 September 1976, 50.
9. Cited by Ted W. Engstrom and Norman B. Rohrer, Making the Right Choices, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), p. 64-65.
10. www.jewishworldreview.com, 6-11-99