In and outside of religious spaces, podiums communicate authority. Whether located in churches, classrooms, political arenas, or other various spaces, podiums provide a space for an authoritative speaker to deliver an authoritative message. The way that the space around a podium is able to capture the attention of an audience communicates both the authority of the person standing behind a podium, and also the respect that the audience has for that person and the message they are speaking.
The origin of pulpits can be traced back to a primary source from 250 AD, Epistle XXIII, written by a man named Cyprian during the early foundation of the Christian church. In this text, it is explained that those who God calls to speak to others about himself should do so from a place where they can be heard and seen by all by placing oneself elevated on a pulpit in front of a congregation (Cyprian). The pulpit is a part of God’s will for the way his word should be proclaimed. He envisioned this “highly elevated place” for Ezra, a Jewish scribe and priest, to stand upon and share the truth of God with people (Embry). In the book of Nehemiah it talks about how “this pulpit of wood” was “made for the purpose”(Embry). It was designed and thought out by God as this way to elevate the words of the speaker and to ensure all the people in the crowd could see and hear him, and though divine, the meaning is still very practical.
The podium at Horizons Christian Fellowship Church is located in the front of the room, on stage, and is made of wood. On the front of the podium there is a wood carving, but it looks to just be for design rather than have any real meaning. The room is catered around the stage, which holds the podium. This arrangement of space is purposeful so that the speaker is raised well above the audience. This allows for the speaker to be clearly visible from any point in the room. Every chair in the room is facing towards the podium and it also has a raised and inclined part on the top of it for the speaker to put notes or anything else on, while still being able to see it clearly without hunching over the podium.
This particular podium has a specific history, as described by the pastor of Horizons Christian Fellowship Church, Ronny Breen, who said “it came from a green shed in Highland County. The shed was owned by the ministry that I worked at called Youth Development Inc., a ministry that has been around for fifty seven years. I was cleaning the shed out in 2005 and discovered it under a bunch of tarps. I don’t know where it came from or how it got there. We used it in the Upper Room Headwaters Lodge from 2006 until 2011. Headwaters lodge is where Youth Development Inc. calls it’s homebase. It is a Christian youth camp in the wilderness of Highland County. In 2011, we moved the podium down to Horizon Christian Fellowship where it has been ever since”
The authority of podiums and pulpits within religious spaces has been restricted over the past 60 years due to a tax law which mandates that organizations which hold tax-exempt status may not influence legislation nor advocate for political candidates. This law was put in place in 1954 and has been nicknamed “The Johnson Amendment”, as it was Lyndon B. Johnson’s proposal to make this change to the existing Internal Revenue Code (Stanley). This law has resulted in lots of controversy about what should/ should not be allowed to be said within a house of worship. Many pastors believe that this law is limiting their First Amendment Right to free speech, desiring to discuss politics with their congregation, while other pastors firmly believe that politics are no matter for a pastor to discuss (Tuttle). We can use the Johnson amendment and its impact on the authority of Church pulpits to better understand the inevitable scrambling of religious spaces and secular spaces.
The desire of many pastors to have the freedom to talk about politics from behind the pulpit reveals that religious spaces and secular spaces are not as separated as they may seem. The act of bringing political matters into a house of worship communicates the message that faith should influence political views. This concept emphasizes the idea that God and faith are intended, for Christians, to be a part of of their everyday life. Preaching politics from behind the pulpit communicates the message that religious beliefs should be involved in every aspect of life; that faith should influence actions, decisions, and even political beliefs. Talking about politics in a house of worship brings secular matters into the religious atmosphere. Churches being regulated by federal law brings religious matters into the political atmosphere. Regardless of society’s desires to keep the Church and State separated, a complete detachment seems impossible.
What was once considered an extremely sacred space for sermons and was very limited in who was welcome to speak into the object has shifted in modern society. The evolution of pulpits throughout the history of the church has overall become more relaxed and casual in its presentation and is much more a piece of furniture used to speak into than a set aside object with reverence that is used to entail. The grandness of the designs of pulpits have declined, as seen in this pulpit from Horizons Christian Fellowship Church which does not embody the same eloquent carvings or fixtures on the item as would have been seen in the early church. This is primarily because of practicality and shifts in the overall thinking of divine power in the church. The practicality of the object is merged with divinity, as the object still encompasses the same overarching idea of how the object is to be used.
Bibliography:
Cyprian. Epistle XXIII (Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2005)
Embrey, Gaylon. “The Pulpit.” The Pulpit. Accessed March 23, 2017.
http://www.theexaminer.org/volume3/number5/pulpit.htm.
Stanley, Eric W. “LBJ, The IRS, and Churches: The Unconstitutionality of the Johnson Amendment in Light of Recent Supreme Court Precedent.” Regent University Law Review 24 (2012): 246.
Tuttle, Robert W. “Pastors To Protest IRS Rules on Political Advocacy.” Interview by Jesse Merriam. Pew Research Center . September 19, 2008. Accessed March 18, 2017. http://www.pewforum.org/2008/09/19/pastors-to-protest-irs-rules-on-political-advocacy/#question-answer.