American Pastors Are Derelict In Their Duty

By Coach Dave Daubenmire
August 28, 2014

Allow me to begin by saying, if the shoe fits…wear it.

Now please don't email me about how wrong I am for pointing out the obvious; the glaringly obvious even. Please don't tell me how harsh I am, or how your pastor is a great man of God, or how your church is the best thing since sliced bread. If you attend a church with a real pastor, you are truly one of the lucky ones. But the odds are, your pastor isn't all that great. He has just convinced you that he is.

I get around. I visit a lot of churches. I know of that which I speak. When I leave a service, it is not unusual for me to look at my wife and ask her how the people can sit in that place week after week and listen to the bilge.

Oh yeah, your pastor is a good one just like your congressman is a good one. Everyone hates congress, but they love their congressman. Nearly 90% of them get re-elected. It’s that Democrat congressman that’s the bad one. Your guy is a good conservative.

Compared to what? Compared to whom? If your congressman is so good, why is our nation in such a mess? If your pastor is so good, why is America in such a mess? People love to blame the politicians. I blame the pastors. Recent studies show 90% are derelict in their duty.

Politicians ride the wave that culture creates. The church used to be the tide upon which the politicians surfed. Politicians want to get elected. They ride whatever wave is breaking. The pulpits have gone soft. There is no “God wave” to trouble the waters of political correctness.

Churches have become impotent because the pulpits have turned soft. Everyone wants to model Joel Osteen and Rick Warren. Those dudes aren't pastors, they’re book merchants. Congregations around this country have traded the Bible for the “self-help, purpose-driven, best-life-now” doctrine of demons currently flooding our churches. The people in the pew can no longer recognize the truth for themselves. They need a shepherd to lead them to truth.

Jesus told us that He is the Good Shepherd and that His Word is the guide. Warren and Osteen are blind guides, and America has fallen into the ditch.

Here is Litmus Test 101 for your church. This is merely the first qualifying factor. If you don't answer yes to this question, then you can bet that yours is a church that I am referring to. Here's the question:

Is carrying the Bible to church and actually opening it a requirement at the church where you attend? Some of the more progressive churches are kind enough to put the words on the big screen for you, saving you the embarrassment of having to find Malachi on your own.

Politicians get elected by saying what the people want to hear. Pastors build churches by teaching what the people want to hear. There’s no difference. Politicians and pastors both tend to be man-pleasers.

The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their own power; and the people love to have it so...Jeremiah 5:31.

The current administration was placed into power with the vote of 40 million Christians. They conveniently called it “faith based support.” Obama is pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, pro-big government, pro-lying and pro-Islam. How could Christians possibly support such anti-Biblical positions? Who is teaching them this crap? Who indeed...

Our pastors are traitorous, both to their Lord and to their nation. There is simply no nice way of saying it. When a football team plays poorly, they fire the coach. When churches start to fail, they change playbooks.

Traitor—one who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty.

There are a lot of reasons why pastors act the way they act, but no amount of rationalization can justify their dereliction of duty. In the end, they will answer to the Lord, not to the Government. Their corporate identity and their denominational affiliation will not be much of a defense as they stand before the Lord.

If you haven't already done so, please take the time to read Pastor Chuck Baldwin's recent commentary regarding George Barna's survey that reveals the fact that 90% of America's pastors are purposefully keeping the people in the dark. (And this one that just came out today). They are concerned with hurting the growth of “their church” by talking about “controversial” issues.

Who was it that classified marriage, abortion, un-holy wars, tyrannical government, government thievery, unrighteous taxation, dishonest courts, drug legalization, deviant sexual behavior, indoctrination of children, and public filth as ”controversial” issues? The church used to be the “wave machine” on all of these issues, but alas: The salt has lost his savor.

Although I’m sure you’re familiar with them, I believe that the words of Charles Finney are worth repeating:

“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible.”

Martin Luther declared:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Flight and disgrace are the fruits of abandonment. Abandonment is treason. Those who commit treason are traitorous. If Barna is correct, can any other term be more appropriately applied to America's churches where 90% of the pulpits are filled by traitorous, cowardly men? It is not the politicians who are to blame. It is the pastors...the pulpits. Stop giving them your money. That is all they understand. Find a mission worth supporting and direct your giving there.

We are a nation adrift...meandering down the river of history...rudderless…devoid of propulsion… drifting wherever the current might take us. There is a waterfall ahead. Who's steering the ship? Is your family willing to blindly follow the captain over the cliff?