Partisan politics in GCx goes back 40 years at least. I remember hearing from attendees of the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City. I was in the audience in 1978 when Charles Grassley (now a U.S. Senator) was enthusiastically introduced (endorsed) by Jim McCotter at the big weekly meeting of the ISU Bible Study. Grassley was running for re-election to the U.S House of Representatives for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District. In 1980 it was all-hands-on-deck for Reagan when the big summer conference at Rutgers University was scheduled to coincide with the Democratic National Convention in NYC (36 years ago this very week). Four years later (if my timeline is accurate) at the national leaders meeting in DC, the newly-"annointed" apostles, along with their underlings, met with Paul Weyrich to learn his radically conservative political tactics. Weyrich coined the term "moral majority" in the late 70s, and Jerry Falwell ran with it in the 80s:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121801771.htmlI know GCx leaders were encouraged to become Moral Majority "card-carrying" members (literally), and afterwards, GCx churches sponsored local church members as candidates in local races across the country. In one political race, the Montgomery County Sentinel and the Washington Post exposed the scheme, and John Hopler, Tom Short, and the Maryland GCI church got a lot of bad press. The "cult" warnings really began to proliferate after that:
http://www.gcxweb.org/Articles/WashPost-08-30-1986.aspx and
http://www.gcxweb.org/Articles/WashPost-09-07-1986.aspx.
According to McCotter, it wasn't good enough to just pray for our civic leaders. In his convincing way of twisting scripture, he perverted 1 Timothy 2:1-8. He exhorted us to "put feet to our prayers" and get involved politically. Poor God, His hands were tied without GCxers helping Him. It took a few more years before my eyes finally opened up, but I eventually left GCx.
Obviously, Christians have the right to vote for whomever they choose, but as aliens in this world, and as citizens from another world, God calls us to be ambassadors for Him: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20.
What if the Ambassador from Canada, or Mexico, or Cuba, or Iran (etc) came to America and started promoting a political party or candidate in this election? That would seem subversive to me. It's one thing for ambassadors to promote good will on behalf of their country, it's quite another thing for ambassadors to interfere in an election or attempt a coup in another country.
As Christ's ambassadors, I believe we have a much higher calling than promoting a mere mortal and his or her worldly agenda: "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us." 1 Peter 2:10-12.