With contested school-board races and city-policy debates touching on values that many local Christians care about deeply, some pastors are increasingly willing to make electoral recommendations from the pulpit or in church newsletters. Is this faithful civic discipleship, a dangerous politicization of the pulpit, or something in between?
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Add your commentMy pastor tried this two cycles ago. Half the church was energized, the other half quietly stopped coming. We lost maybe 40 people over 18 months. Some of them were my closest friends. We never really recovered our small group ministry after that. Think long and hard, CB pastors, about what you are willing to spend on this hill.
As a lifelong Council Bluffs resident and former deacon I can tell you the congregations that get most heavily politicized from the pulpit are also the ones with the highest member turnover. Coincidence? I doubt it. Young families especially do not want to be told how to vote by the same man who baptized their children. There is a sacred trust there that gets broken real fast.
Born and raised in Council Bluffs, attended Grace Lutheran on 16th for 30 years. My pastor has NEVER told me who to vote for and I respect him deeply for that. The pulpit is for the Gospel, not the city council race. Once you open that door you cannot close it again.
^ Actually the IRS almost never enforces the Johnson Amendment and there have been zero churches that lost tax-exempt status over a pastoral endorsement in decades. Just want to correct that before it spreads as fact. The legal risk is essentially theoretical at this point.
I think the real question nobody is asking here is: which direction do we think these pastoral endorsements would actually go? Because the folks cheering for pastors to speak up on elections seem to assume those endorsements will match their own politics. What happens when a pastor endorses the candidate you HATE? Still think it's a great idea then? Genuine question for Council Bluffs folks on both sides of this.
Actually, pastors who stay silent on civic matters are the reason we're in this mess. The Johnson Amendment is a government gag on the church and many constitutional scholars agree it's on shaky legal ground. Prophets in Scripture CONSTANTLY spoke to the political rulers of their day. Isaiah, Amos, John the Baptist — none of them said 'well, that's a political topic so I'll just preach about grace today.'
Guiding is different from commanding. I WANT my pastor to say 'here are the biblical principles at stake in this school board race, here is which candidate best reflects those principles.' That is discipleship. That is formation. What I don't want is a pastor who pretends Christianity has nothing to say about education policy or zoning or any of the actual decisions that shape my family's life here in CB.
Moved here from Omaha two years ago so I'm still getting to know the CB church scene. What strikes me is how SMALL these local races are — we're talking school board seats decided by maybe 400 votes. A single mid-sized congregation could flip an election. That's a lot of power for one pastor to wield over people who trust him spiritually. Checks me out as concerning regardless of which direction the endorsement goes.
My grandma used to say her priest at St. Peter's told the whole congregation to vote against a certain candidate back in the 1970s and she said it felt more like a command than a suggestion. She left that parish over it. Some wounds don't heal. Just food for thought for the pastors in this thread who think their flock will just shrug it off.
Biblically speaking Deuteronomy 17 literally describes God setting up the framework for civil governance among His people. Christians acting like faith and civic life are separate compartments have never actually read the whole Bible. That said — there is a BIG difference between teaching biblical principles of justice and governance versus saying 'vote for Dave on Tuesday.' The first is discipleship. The second is just politics wearing a collar.
Nope. Hard disagree. Church is the one place left in this city where I don't have to think about politics for an hour. Don't ruin it.
The Johnson Amendment literally bans 501(c)(3) churches from endorsing candidates, so any pastor doing this from the pulpit is putting their church's tax-exempt status at risk. Period. End of discussion. Look it up people.
ok so ive been going to my church out near the Mosquito Creek area for like 3 years now and last fall my pastor basically read off a list of candidates he endorsed for school board. felt weird. i came to worship not to get a voter guide. idk maybe im wrong but it just felt off to me
been attending a small nondenominational church off W Broadway for about 8 months. our pastor did mention one school board candidate by name in his newsletter and honestly i looked the candidate up and did my own research because of it. felt empowered not manipulated. maybe it depends on HOW the pastor does it
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