Reorganized Religion by Bob Smietana

Author:Bob Smietana [SMIETANA, BOB]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worthy
Published: 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

A POLITICAL PROBLEM

DAVID PLATT’S TROUBLES BEGAN—or at least as they were revealed publicly—on a Sunday in early June 2019 when he learned that an unexpected guest would be coming to church.

Platt, the pastor of McLean Bible Church, a prominent megachurch in the Washington, DC, area, had just finished his sermon and the worship service was about to wind down when he got word that the president of the United States was on his way and, in fact, would be there in a few minutes.

This was, to say the least, unusual.

A presidential visit to a church service or any other event involves significant advance planning and tight security. That’s one reason why recent American presidents—aside from Joe Biden, who often makes his way to a Catholic Mass—are so rarely found in church on Sundays, as their very presence can disrupt the life of a worshipping community.

Trump’s visit was surprising for another reason. Unlike fellow Southern Baptists Robert Jeffress and Jack Graham, a pair of Texas megachurch pastors who served as advisers and avid supporters of President Trump, Platt for the most part had stayed out of politics, focused much more on overseas missions than on winning the election. He was also best known for his 2010 book Radical, a surprise bestseller that challenged young people to give up the American Dream and devote themselves fully to Jesus.

When Trump arrived at McLean that Sunday, Platt was still relatively new to the role of senior pastor. He’d begun preaching at the church in the fall of 2017 while also serving as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, and he was named senior pastor a year later, after longtime McLean pastor Lon Solomon stepped down.

Platt had just finished a sermon about planning for the church’s future when he got the news that Trump was on his way. In that sermon, he recounted having lunch with Solomon and discussing the church’s past ministry and all that had been accomplished in the church’s nearly four decades of existence, before looking ahead.

“Today, I want to ask, What if our best days as a church are ahead of us, not behind us?” he said, according to a transcript of the sermon from that Sunday.1

Like many of his fellow evangelicals, Platt believes Christians are supposed to pray for their leaders, and so when the president stopped by to ask for prayer, Platt obliged, despite his aversion to political involvement. Still, video from the event shows Platt looking ill at ease during Trump’s visit,2 not sure what to do as he stood by the president on the stage at McLean, explaining what was happening to the congregation.

Then Platt put one hand on the president’s back, held his Bible high in the other hand, and began praying for the president. Platt prayed that God would give Trump “all the grace he needs” to guide the country in a way that would lead to “peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way” and that God would give the president and his family wisdom.

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