Mainline pastors — not ‘pastors in name only’ — are running for office again

(RNS) — A recent Religion News Service story highlighted pushback some clergy running for office are receiving — that is, mainline Protestant clergy running as Democrats.

In “ ‘ They’re not real pastors ’ : As clergy run as Democrats, Republicans question their faith,” Jack Jenkins reports on comments made in July at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa. Joe Mitchell, a Republican running against Lindsay James in the second congressional district, said James “calls herself a pastor.” He then coined a term to apply to candidates such as James and other progressive clergy candidates in other states. “I call them PINOs,” he  said , to describe them as “Pastors in Name Only.” This is obviously a variation of an acronym used by Republicans for other Republicans who do not share the hard conservative agenda of their leader: RINO for “Republican in Name Only.”

Clergy have been running for office and serving as public officials for a long time. Methodist pastor Peter Cartwright ran against Abraham Lincoln for Congress from Illinois in 1846. This pattern has been common among Black pastors — notably current Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor, and…