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Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice called on pastors across the country to “get involved” in the political process as the midterm elections approach.
While some Christian leaders advise against wading into politics from the pulpit, Rice argues that pastors have long played a key role in American politics.
Members of the theological and political left have shown no hesitation about mixing religion with their politics and evangelicals shouldn’t either, he says.
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Parishioners pray during Sunday service at Clayton Baptist Church, Georgia, June 9, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
“Should pastors get involved in the political process? They absolutely should. Because there are many political questions that are, at their core, theological questions and moral questions that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we think people need to know to flourish personally and as a culture.”
“I think pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history,” Rice said.
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Worshipers arrive for Easter Sunday services at Second Baptist Church in Houston on April 5, 2026. (Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Rice lamented that many Christians have been encouraged in recent decades, by external and internal forces, to “be quieter” and “withdraw from the political process.”
“Now what’s interesting is that those on the theological and political left did not opt out, nor did they intend to. And in fact, the statistics show that people on the political and theological left are actually more politically engaged than those on the right,” Rice said. “So for a while I felt like there was almost a void that developed, a silence that was there with a lack of Christian leaders leaning into it.”
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Midterm elections are heating up as voters return to the polls in 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
Rice highlighted abortion, the definition of marriage, gender identity and immigration as issues on which Christians should feel obligated to vote a certain way.
“These questions are deeply, deeply theological. They go back to creation; they go back to Genesis 1 and 2. They go back to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and our understanding of God’s creative design for us as human beings,” he said.
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Voters cast their ballots at the Utah County Health and Justice Building on Nov. 8, 2022, in Provo. After months of campaigning, Americans are voting in the midterm elections to decide close elections across the country. (George Frey/Getty Images)
Rice argued that Christians also face “manipulative” arguments when it comes to immigration. He admits that the immigration issue presents a “challenge” for Christians, but says there is nothing wrong with enforcing American laws.
“There is a value of compassion, a value of wanting to care for the least of these people who are poor and oppressed and want to help,” Rice said, noting that Christians do more of this charity than any other group in the United States.
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“But there is also the importance of the rule of law,” he continued. “Protection of people who are in this country. And what you’ve seen is sometimes a very cynical use by some people in power to try to manipulate Christians by saying that since you have to be compassionate, then you must embrace open immigration, or you must not insist on immigration enforcement.”
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“It’s very, very manipulative. No one would say that because you love people or care about people that you should leave the doors of your home open, or that you should open the prison cells of your own community,” he said.
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