The pressures to remain silent on difficult topics originate from more than current events like Charlottesville. They also tap into existing concerns about church decline and growth and a desire for ministers be pastoral, not prophetic, in their ministry.
The stories of Graham Platner and Roy Moore, although unfolding in different parties and different eras, trace the same institutional pattern: Modern political parties elevate outsiders when they are useful and abandon them when they become inconvenient. Platner and Moore...
