When Scripture on the Illinois House Floor is an Embarrassment

Written by Ecce Verum

With all of today’s hubbub about separation of church and state, it’s refreshing to hear someone invoke Scripture on the floor of a state legislature. 

But then it’s doubly disappointing when Scripture is grossly misrepresented on the public stage.

Illinois, you have an impressive man serving in your state legislature: Maurice A. West II, representing the 67th district and serving as the Assistant Majority Leader. I mean that honestly—he is remarkable in several different ways. 

West is an award-winning composer, both a jazz saxophonist and a church organist. He is an ordained minister, as his website proudly points out, and active in his church. He is currently an influential state legislator, and an eloquent one at that—you can hear that pastoral tone coming out after just a few minutes of listening to him speak on the legislature floor.

What’s more, West seems to weave Christianity into his political stance. His website explains that his personal political values are “built by my life experiences and beliefs – especially my call to preach the Gospel.” 

He claims that he votes according to his personal values, and “not for the Party.” That sounds pretty good so far! An ordained minister, serving in politics, openly declares that the gospel shapes his political stance and that he’ll stand on that rather than toe the party line. 

So far, so good?

Doubts arise, however, when you read what his “gospel-founded” political values are. I’ll pick out some of the more egregious ones. 

“Reduce the gap between rich people and poor people.” 

“Help everyone to feel they can make a difference.” 

“Promote tolerance.” 

Hmm… I’m wondering how these are built by West’s “call to preach the gospel?” 

Or rather, I’m beginning to wonder what gospel West is preaching? His gospel is beginning to look like some sort of social recipe, not the incredibly discriminatory and utterly disempowering message of salvation in Jesus Christ alone.

What’s more—despite West’s stand to vote with his principles and not the party—it’s pretty inexcusable that a “gospel-preaching” minister would side with the party that pledges to “pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again.” (That basically means that all abortions would be legal everywhere.)

So on the surface, he seems an impressive combination of church and state in a world that can’t stand to have the two in the same room together. But the more we scratch the surface, the more it seems that the “church” part is more veneer than real. 

So now let’s move to his recent speech on the Illinois House floor.

In early March, West rose to address the legislature because (in his words), 

“I had something on my mind.” 

He then read aloud Matthew 11:28–29: 

“Come unto me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me [sic] and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Now normally, I read this passage and hear Jesus offering salvation to those who have not found it anywhere else. After all, this passage comes immediately after Jesus explains, “Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him,” which is clearly a statement about salvation (Matthew 11:27). 

But that’s not how Reverend West applied it on the House floor: In his opinion, during 

“the past month or so, under the current administration, the weary and the burdened have been on the chopping block.”

Oh? We suddenly aren’t talking about salvation anymore. Especially not salvation from sins, because West specified who some of these burdened people are:

“The LGBT community.” “Those who are transgender.” 

West criticized those who claim to be “Christ-like” yet celebrate when opportunities are taken away from these groups.

Wait a minute—I thought Jesus came to save people from their sins, not to affirm those who form entire communities around their sins! 

In just a few quick seconds, West’s speech moved from a beautiful Scriptural passage about Jesus offering relief from oppression and straight to underhanded affirmation of the very slavery that oppresses so many sinners nowadays. As this very same Jesus so clearly put it, 

“Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34).

Seriously, if West really wants to stand up for these “communities,” then he could hardly pick a worse book to quote than the Bible!

Leviticus 20:13 – “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.”

Mark 10:6-8 – “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 – “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

West also seemed to lodge dubious criticism against the Trump Administration’s push for government efficiency—claiming that we are trying to save money “on the backs of the poor.” 

While it’d be a whole separate discussion to tease apart that claim, I smell a similar misapplication of Scripture here, as well.

In a sense, West’s method of wrangling Scripture onto the House floor and making it dance to his tunes is even more shameful than the standard, cowardly “separation of church and state.” 

As much as I despise the secularization of politics, at least when you keep Scripture out of the House chambers, it can kind of stay intact. 

But when you apply West’s treatment to it on the way into the Capitol, Scripture gets sliced up and reassembled it to make it say something God has never said. 

So in some ways, having a false prophet in the house is worse than having no prophet in the house at all.

I’m all for breaking down the wall of separation between church and state, properly understood. But politics must not invade Scripture and remake it in its own image. 

Rather, Scripture must invade politics and remake it according to the glory of God.

Ecce Verum is passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how God’s redemptive work relates to every aspect of life. His earnest desire is to steward well the resources and abilities that God has given him, in whatever situation God may have him. Currently, Ecce is pursuing a B.A. in classical liberal arts at New Saint Andrews College, with the intention to enter law school after graduation and fight for the truth in the legal and political fields. However, he does enjoy aptly written words regardless of the topic, and has contributed to blogs on apologetics and debate in addition to writing on academic literary research. A former national semi-finalist and finalist in speech and debate, he now coaches students in value debate and competitive speaking.