When Rev. John Pierpont was put on trial by his Unitarian congregation in Boston in 1841, the charges against him were extraordinary: preaching against slavery. Pierpont won. But the same battles are being fought today. The Pastor as Partisan is the first serious analysis of freedom of the pulpit--the claim, embedded in liberal religious traditions from Unitarianism to Reform Judaism, that clergy have a right and duty to preach as conscience demands, free from lay interference. What is this freedom, exactly? Why should preachers enjoy it? And where does it end? Drawing on history, theology, employment law, and homiletics, this book traces the principle from its colonial origins through the great rabbinic controversies of American Reform Judaism and across the Atlantic to contemporary British congregations. It compares pulpit freedom to the academic freedom claimed by university lecturers and asks what professional ethics can tell us about preachers' obligations to their employer-congregations. The book concludes with a proposed Practice Statement that could help religious communities navigate inevitable tensions. Timely, provocative, and unlike anything else in print, The Pastor as Partisan makes the case that the Reverend Pierponts of this world deserve not only admiration, but protection.
