Seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump encouraged via video attendees at the North Carolina Pastor Summit to continue encouraging Christians to run for public office.
“I will be cheering you on as you recruit 500 church members to run for office in 2026 and 2028,” he said.
President Trump also shared a laundry list of accomplishments:
“I have ended the radical left war on religious believers, and I stopped the Biden administration’s persecution of Christians and pro-life activists. I created a presidential commission to protect religious liberty, and we established the Department of Justice Task Force to eradicate anti-Christian bias, of which, sadly, there’s a lot, but we have pretty much put it to an end.
“We also restored the fundamental principle that God created two genders, male and female, and we’re keeping men out of women’s sports.”
It’s long been known that many of our Founding Fathers were men of deep Christian faith. Both their convictions and governing philosophy stemmed largely from their devotion to God. After all, it was President John Adams who famously observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Three of the founders were ordained ministers. John Witherspoon was a pastor who signed the Declaration of Independence, pastor Lyman Hall was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Robert Paine was a military chaplain during the American Revolution.
Nine pastors served in the Continental Congress. For the first Congress, Lutheran minister Frederick Muhlenberg served as the first Speaker of the House.
Critics of President Trump, many of whom accuse Christian conservatives of so-called “Christian Nationalism,” seem ignorant to the long history of Christ followers serving in elected office. As evidenced from our nation’s founding, it’s not some new phenomenon.
After Jimmy Carter lost his gubernatorial bid in Georgia in 1966, he became a Southern Baptist missionary. He settled in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and rented a room at the YMCA. He was there to share the Good News and also plant a church.
Looking back on his time in the small town, the 39th president said the experience affirmed his convictions that “the teachings of Christ could be applied to a secular existence.”
Carter decided to run for governor again in 1970, a race he would win, and then launch his successful bid for president in 1976. Jimmy Carter long held that it was his Christian faith that compelled him to run for office each time.
Back in 1980, speaking to evangelical leaders in Texas, Ronald Reagan told those gathered, “I know this is nonpartisan, so you can’t endorse me, but I want you to know that I endorse you!”
Reagan encouraged those gathered to not only vote but also get involved in the process and community on every level.
Frank Wolf is a former congressman who served Virginia’s 10th district between 1981 and 2015. For decades, he boldly and unapologetically lived his faith very publicly in Congress.
He once declared, “My hope and prayer is that the body of Christ in America will awake with holy boldness, a boldness content neither with silence nor mere words but that backs up those words with action and results. Scripture makes it clear that there is an obligation to speak out on behalf of those being persecuted.”
He also added, “As a follower of Jesus, there is a call to work for justice and reconciliation, and to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves.”
Rep. Wolf once spoke at Focus on the Family. I had the privilege of driving him to the airport for an early morning flight. I asked him about his early days in politics and he said, “Do you realize how few people decide who actually represents us in Congress?”
I think I said something about only half of the electorate voting, and he replied, “Oh, it’s actually a lot less than that.” He then proceeded to explain that while half of the electorate may vote in a general election, approximately 15% or 20% vote in a primary. But then who decides who runs in the primary? In a caucus state, it’s in the single digits.
Representative Wolf’s main point was Christians can have an oversized impact – but they have to get involved, either by running themselves or voting for believers who do throw their hat in the ring.
As Christians, we’re all called to be involved in public service, whether as voters or as candidates. Praying and cheering for 500 Christians to be running for office is a good start, but we’d all benefit in a mighty way if that milestone was only the beginning of a landslide movement for believers in Jesus Christ to serve.
Image from X.
