Oh, Those Pesky Preachers

After all these years of wrestling and wrangling with my pastors about what it means to be a Christian, it turns out I was supposed to agree with everything they said or plant my posterior in a different pew.

What? Do I have the wrong Bible? Again?

If I always agreed with my pastors, that would mean I would have a better relationship with Pastor Kate and Pastor Woody than with the children I've raised, the friends I've made and the man I married.

I dunno. There's something wrong with this theory — starting with how it began. Yes, I'm sorry; that means we have to talk about the presidential race again.

Barack Obama's longtime pastor, Jeremiah Wright, has said some things from the pulpit that apparently set off some white people. The pastor has a long history of championing those who most need the righteous rage of Christ on their side. But he also has used incendiary language that some white people — and some African-Americans, too — don't find very Christianlike. So Obama has spent the past two weeks trying to distance himself from one of his oldest friends.

Some white people get testy when a black person insists on pointing out that we still have more wealth, better health care and greater opportunities just because we're white. It's not that it isn't true; it just makes some white people feel so guilty. Nobody says that, though. Instead, there's a lot of talk about how much better things are these days, which I suppose can work as long as you ignore that white people still have more wealth, better health care and greater opportunities.

Obama is not the only presidential candidate trying to explain what he does and doesn't believe when it comes to faith. John McCain has had his problems with pastors lately, too, particularly with Texas evangelist John Hagee, who recently endorsed him. McCain had to backpedal faster than a duck in the cross hairs of a Remington 870 after it got out that Hagee's hobbies include blaming the gays of New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina and bashing the Catholic Church.

Let's get this out of the way: Do I think Obama hates white people because his pastor sometimes rails against white privilege? No.

Political candidates should denounce the bigotry of their associates. They are judged by the company they keep, just like the rest of us. But when it comes to faith, it's foolish to suggest that people agree all the time with their religious leaders. In fact, if you agree with everything your pastor says, then one of you has become unnecessary.

There's a give-and-take between pastors and their congregations. The best pastors lead, not dictate. They offer a map and a compass but then coax their congregations to think for themselves when it comes to finding their way.

In return, church members challenge their pastors to keep up with the world in which they have to live day in and day out. They are their pastors' mirrors, and they have to insist that their pastors behold the true reflection. This isn't always pretty.

Some pastors, particularly those who lead large congregations, get caught up in their own celebrity and become increasingly detached from the people they serve. I've visited mega-churches where the entertainment systems and calls for "love offerings" for the ministers drown out Christ's knock at the door. Not coincidentally, such churches tend to have strict rules for who's in and who's out when it comes to God's embrace.

The late Rev. William Sloane Coffin had a lot to say about so-called Christians who put "the purity of dogma ahead of the integrity of love."

"What a distortion of the gospel it is to have limited sympathies and unlimited certainties," he wrote. "The very reverse — to have limited certainties and unlimited sympathies — is not only more tolerant but far more Christian."

Faith evolves over the span of a lifetime. It is human and so very American to challenge those who teach.

The better preachers encourage the questions.

The best ones never stop learning.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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