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Shocker: Sheep need shepherds.

In a world that’s so filled with political hot topics, fake news, and hysteria, Christians have a deep longing to hear from their pastors how to navigate those waters and discern God’s commands in the midst of them.

But sadly, a majority of American pastors don’t want to “get political.”

Check out this poll:

According to a Lifeway report released Tuesday, 80% of Protestants ‘believe a pastor must address current issues to be doing their job,’ while 16% don’t and 4% are unsure.

Some 62% of respondents said their pastor addressed current issues either ‘every week’ or ‘almost every week,’ while 23% said they spoke about them ‘at least once a month,’ and 12% said they spoke about them ‘rarely’ or ‘several times a year.’

4 out of 5 American protestants believe that if a pastor won’t talk current issues and culture from the pulpit then they are neglecting to do their jobs as shepherds.

(The other 20% probably don’t understand the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.)

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, was quoted in the report as saying that, as the ‘culture increasingly includes fewer overtly Christian elements and more non-Christian ideas, churchgoers are hungry to know what the Bible says about life’s issues.’

‘Churchgoers notice that most pastors are not just preaching from the Bible as a historical document,’ stated McConnell. ‘Pastors seek to explain the original meaning and context, but then apply those principles to issues and situations today. Such application of the biblical text helps churchgoers recognize its relevance.’

As American culture has become more divided politically, American Christians have also become more vocal about a need for their spiritual leaders to give them advice on choosing political leaders.

Earlier this month, Lifeway released a report saying that ‘the percentage of Americans who see pastors endorsing a candidate in church as appropriate has risen steadily over the past 16 years.’

In the earlier report, Lifeway found that while only 13% of respondents in 2008 found pastors endorsing a candidate in church as appropriate, that number grew to 29% this year.

Additionally, regarding whether it was ‘appropriate for a church to publicly endorse candidates for public office,’ support for this increased from 22% in 2008 to 32% this year.

If you read through, well, the entire Bible, you’ll see how God directly involves Himself in culture and politics of nations. God warns strongly against putting a political leader above Himself, for that path leads to tyranny and the destruction of a country, but God commands that his people involve themselves in discipling their nations and picking leaders who honor Him.

And in our current chaos, Christians seem to need more than “no politician can save you” and “just love people like Jesus” to understand what that looks like.

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