Trump leveling the playing field re: churches and politics?
It was always funny to listen to libs spew and spout off about Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson getting political from the pulpit. Anyone who has ever stuck their toe into the political waters knows that historically black churches (i.e., the AME folks) are pretty much field organizing offices for the Democrat Party. (White liberals have that Pullen Baptist Church in Raleigh, and a number of pop-up churches throughout the state and nation.)
Liberals can haul out Bill Barber or that Rosie O’Donnell look-alike at Pullen Baptist and tell us to shut up and show them respect — because they have REV. in front of their names. (Then, we get treated to diatribes from ol’ Bill and his muscle, Miz Nancy, about what baby-starving, granny-hating, woman-hating Nazis we conservatives are.)
While a lot of black folks don’t seem to mind hearing from Candidate X and Candidate Y from the pulpit, you find a lot of predominantly white congregations shying away from that kind of thing. I admit I am one who doesn’t want politics in the sanctuary on Sunday. (I have a fresh-out-of-seminary commie-lib associate pastor at my church who is really trying my patience.)
But there are people I see on Sunday at this church, and at previous churches, who I’d be at political war with Monday through Saturday, but a brother-in-Christ with at church. It’s a neutral zone. A political DMZ, if you will.
Organized religion is a powerful thing. It’s a great tool for influencing a lot of people. Authoritarians throughout the world have tried to co-opt and control it. (Those denominations or congregations they couldn’t control got stomped into submission.)
Just look at the pure havoc Pope John Paul II wreaked on the Soviets in the 70s and 80s.
Our First Amendment makes a pretty powerful statement about religious freedom. Yet, liberal judges and liberal politicians have pecked away at it. *Something specifically protected in The Constitution can get tweaked and “managed”, but DON’T DARE TOUCH ABORTION OR THE GAYS.*
Thomas Jefferson mentioned separation of church and state in a letter he wrote. That concept never made it into our Founding Documents. But the howler monkeys on the left want you to believe “separation of church and state” is “settled law.”
(“Black people are white people’s property” and “separate but equal” were once “settled law” too. )
Trump’s executive order deals mainly with politicking from the pulpit on Sunday. It does offer some protection for folks — like those nuns made by ObamaCare to pay for birth control — who get run over by bureaucratic thuggery because of their faith.
The gay mafia has been running wild here in North Carolina in the wake of the whole HB2 thing. I would not be 
surprised to see them start harassing churches and church-affiliated private schools that decline to host gay weddings or wedding receptions, to let trannies into the ladies’ room, or to provide a forum for gay political propaganda.
Some people worry about a faith taking over a country and causing havoc. (Pick a Middle Eastern country.) Here in America though, it’s becoming more and more crucial to protect religious people and religious institutions from bureaucratic — and general leftist — thuggery.
Just like with ObamaCare, this is a good first step for Trump. But first steps generally require a second or third or fourth to get you anywhere.
While I never try to tell my congregation how to vote from the pulpit, I do discuss political issues and urge them to get informed, get involved, and vote. I do remind them that, just like everything else in their lives, their vote belongs to Jesus. After all, we call Him King, Lord, and Messiah or Christ. All three of those are political terms. So if we truly believe He is the King over all, we need to act like it. The non-establishment clause in the First Amendment merely means that Congress cannot establish any one denomination as the official Church of the nation. Liberals want to ignore the free exercise clause, which is meant to protect the free speech of believers and non-believers alike.