Ron Fournier: You know what evangelicals need to do? Embrace liberal political positions.

I've told you about Ron Fournier before. If you want to read one creature of the Washington media establishment who perfectly encapsulates the consensus thinking of the whole bunch, this is the guy. And since most of official Washington accepts the same conventional wisdom, reading Fournier helps you to understand why the whole country is in so much trouble.

So here he comes today with a terrific piece of advice for American evangelicals: You want more members? Jump on the immigration, gun control and global warming trains! That'll fill the pews. There are many examples of media cluelessness about faith, but few illustrate it better than this one:

In The Purpose Driven Church, his 1995 book geared toward ambitious evangelical church leaders, Rick Warren wrote an entire chapter about targeting (geographic and psychographic) and marketing, with an emphasis on heeding broad demographic trends. “Because human beings are so different, no single church can possibly reach everyone,” Warren wrote. “That’s why we need all kinds of churches.”

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So it shouldn’t be a surprise that some evangelical leaders—like certain GOP leaders—have “seen the light” on immigration. They want to be viewed as inclusive to the fast-growing Hispanic population. There is also a less-than-cynical view that the devout are finding tolerance in a deeper reading of their Bibles. Wrote Preston: “Many pastors in largely white churches have been spurred to action on immigration by preachers in Hispanic and immigrant churches, who have seen rapid growth in their congregations and have ministered to many followers who spoke of living in fear because they lacked legal papers.” Not long ago, there was a similar evangelical movement in favor of curbing climate change. The argument was simple: It’s our moral obligation to protect the Earth God created. One might wonder why there is not more momentum today behind a "pro-Earth" movement. Or why more evangelicals don’t extend the "pro-life" cause to lives lost at the point of a gun.

Without getting into the relative merits of Warren's ministry - because I know some people have problems with his theology - I don't think he was suggesting that churches use market research to identify political issues and then embrace them to grow their membership. There's nothing wrong with knowing how people think, but you only learn that to understand better how to reach them with the Word of God. I don't know if Fournier is a Christian or attends a church, but he doesn't seem to know that what we talk about in church is not politics or issues in the news. We talk about the Word of God and its application in our lives. We talk about eternal salvation. We talk about living according to the power of the Holy Spirit. We talk about attaining God's righteousness, trusting Him, obeying Him, serving Him. Honestly, if my pastor got up and started talking about global warming or gun control - regardless of the position he took - we would all start looking around at each other as if to say, "What is he doing?" That is not what we go to church for. And the church that goes down that road to try to attract more members may well succeed, but it will do so at the expense of its anointing under God. This is how the media always views religion, though. When the Catholic Church was selecting a new pope, all the media cared about was abortion and women priests. They see everything through the lens of politics and political issues. They don't understand faith because, quite frankly, most of them don't practice it and don't have any interest in it. They figure that since the world revolves around politics for them, it must for everyone. No thanks, Ron. I'm glad to have a pastor who knows his job is to preach the word of God and not to spout about politics. Maybe some Sunday morning, instead of watching Meet the Press, you should try it.