At the beginning of my Doctor of Ministry program at Boston University’s School of Theology, I was required to participate in a career assessment testing regime. One of the results of the survey was that I would be well suited for a career in politics or ministry. Imagine that! Of course, I gladly pursued ministry rather than politics, and at no time during my fifty plus years of ministry did I ever consider entering the bruising world of political theater.
Interestingly, though, in March of 2026, the Associated Press published an article under the pen of Krysta Fauria titled: 3 Democratic Pastors in Iowa Are Running for Congress, a Snapshot of a National Trend. A national trend indeed! It is a trend that is meant to challenge the conservative evangelical and Christian nationalist dominance over this Republican administration! With the midterms less than two months away, that trend has become well established. Amid years of white Christians overwhelmingly supporting Republican President Donald Trump, a striking number of clergy are, in fact, currently running for political office on the Democratic ticket. James Talarico, a seminarian in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas. The Reverand Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States, is running for a senate seat in Kansas, and according to the polls, both have a chance at winning their respective races. According to Ms. Fauria, there are more than another dozen clergy running for political office.
One aspect of the popularity of this trend among the electorate is the willingness of these candidates to speak about their faith and the importance of the Bible in informing that faith.
On Tuesday, September 22nd, Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, had his book, Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country, (St Martin’s Press) published, and of course, he has been on the talk show circuit promoting the book and the reason for it.
I have listened to some of those interviews, and I am convinced that at some point Beshear came under the influence of Simon Sinek and his admonition, presented in his very popular TED Talk in 2009 and then his book, Find Your Why in 2017, that finding your ‘Why’ is one of the most essential discovery we can make.
In a reflection on the losses experienced by the Democratic party, Beshear claims:
We stopped talking about our why,” he said. “When that happens, I think you lose your authenticity. And sometimes that means that people stop believing that you are going to work as hard as you’re committed to doing.”
My faith is my authentic why. It’s what drives me to try to better this world.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
As the grandson and great-grandson of Baptist lay ministers, I was taught the parable of the Good Samaritan. It's a wonderful story, and you don't need to be a religious person to appreciate its wisdom. In the story, a man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho is ambushed, stripped, beaten, robbed, and left half-dead on the side of the road. A number of people pass by and see this poor man lying in the dirt, naked and bleeding, but they do nothing to help him. Instead, they cross over to the other side of the road and keep walking. But one person, a Samaritan, stops and renders lifesaving aid. He even goes the extra mile and carries the man on his back to a nearby town and pays for his care. Who, Jesus asked, is the true neighbor to this man? The one who helped him, of course.
Many sermons mistakenly stop here. They shouldn't. Because after telling this story, Jesus doesn't pause or move on to another topic. He looks directly at the crowd and says, "Now go and do likewise." The parable of the Good Samaritan isn't just a story—it's an instruction. It is Jesus's command to go out and show kindness, not cruelty, to one another and to the world. It means that if you claim to be a Christian, it's your job to be good to your fellow human being, especially when it's hard.
I wonder if Donald Trump has ever heard the story of the Good Samaritan. If he has, he failed to learn its central lesson. "Now go and do likewise" means seeing the humanity in one another. It means giving people a hand up when they need it, even if they are different from you. It does not mean punishing people who depend on SNAP benefits to feed their babies or Medicaid to cover the cost of healthcare. "Now go and do likewise" means treating all people as people of God—not dividing the country by party, race, ethnicity, or even sexual orientation. "Now go and do likewise" means welcoming people to a country that once welcomed our own ancestors, not defying court orders and expelling people who do not look the same as you. At its simplest level, "now go and do likewise" means treating one another with kindness, not wielding the power of the United States government to do cruel things.
For more than a decade, Trump has told us he is going to make America great again. I don't think he understands what greatness looks like. To him, it is about power, about appearing strong or tough. He misses the truth that Jesus was tougher than the nails that pinned Him to the cross; that He was tempted to become the Prince of Power but chose to be the Prince of Peace; that even after being crucified and speared, Jesus did not smite his enemies. He forgave them.
In today’s Sabbath devotional (September 27, 2026), Paul Dvid Tripp focuses on the following passage from Exodus:
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Ex 3: 7-12 NRSVUE)
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” 13 But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” (Ex 4: 10-13, NRSVUE)
Whether we be tending to the ordinary flock of our affairs in life on our own Mt. Sinai or tending to the wounds of bruised and beaten neighbors, God calls us often to go and make a difference for the better in the world. Like Moses, our first inclination is to say pleadingly: Please send someone else! That is not, however, the way it works. The world will only be healed of its misguided and immoral ways and inflicted wounds if we act like the Samaritans of the present day who are willing to “now go and do likewise,” following the instructions of Jesus and the example of that Samaritan on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.
Tripp writes of Moses:
Moses omits the ultimate fact that changes everything about the ways we think and should respond to God’s call. That fact is not the difficulty of the calling or our perceived ability to answer that call. It is not the size of the situation or the size of your wisdom or strength. The life changing fact is that the God of glory and grace, who calls his people to do his will on earth, always goes with them… he never sends without going too.
We are being sent every day. When Jesus says to all of us, through the Samaritan, Now go and do likewise, we do not then act alone but always in concert with the God of mercy and compassion, justice and grace. God does not send without going too. Believing this provides the Why for our ministries, our politics and our lives.