Politics and religion: They’re two items often on the top of the list of things not to talk about if you’re trying to avoid controversy.

Put them together, and controversy seems inevitable — or at least it has been in the case of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, to which U.S. Sen. Barack Obama belongs.

Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., last week, the Rev. Wright made a presentation and addressed journalists’ questions about views he’s expressed in sermons about issues such as race and the American government. But what is perhaps a bigger question for many is how much — if at all — political views should be expressed from the pulpit.

“To do anything like that from the pulpit just is not kosher,” said the Rev. Kurt Routon of Faith Valley Church of God in St. Joseph. “Churches have 501(c)(3) status, which makes promoting political views illegal. They could lose their nonprofit status.”

This isn’t to say people who belong to a church or he, as a pastor, shouldn’t care about politics, he added — because doing that would show a lack of care about the privilege of being an American.

The Rev. W.A. Hedge, who pastors St. Francis Baptist Temple in St. Joseph, agrees.

“From the pulpit, I encourage people to get involved in politics,” he said. “Especially in an African-American church, it’s important for you to remember how many people suffered, bled and died for you to have that vote.”

He added that his church has gone so far as to invite someone to come in to register people to vote — but this doesn’t mean he thinks a Sunday morning service is a place for him to endorse a political candidate or promote his personal views on a political issue.

“Outside (the pulpit), I’ll run those down,” he said. “You can’t completely divorce politics from religion, because people look to pastors for guidance. But you have to be careful.”

Even pastors who share this viewpoint, however, might often be presenting political messages — depending upon what definition of politics is used, said the Rev. Krista Kiger, who will become the pastor of St. Joseph’s First Presbyterian Church this summer.

“The Gospels make it clear that Jesus is for the underside — the lost, the last, the lonely and the least,” she said. “That’s political, because it’s all about power and who has it.”

Given this definition, she added, she does consider some of the sermons she’s made political.

“I personally will never endorse a political candidate from the pulpit,” she said. “But I will talk about social justice, economic concerns, the importance of loving your enemies.”

“Just take a look at what Jesus talked about.”

Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.