A Time to Speak
Pastor’s Perspective, Stevens County Times
October 2026
By Tim White
I want to speak to the larger congregation of Jesus’ Church within the reach of this column this month. Everyone else can listen, too.
Picture a toddler alone by a pool, wandering dangerously close to the water. Would anyone stand there and do nothing to move that child away from danger? We know instinctively that silence and inaction are not always virtues. In such moments, they are failures to love as Jesus commanded.
Ecclesiastes tells us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (3:1). The Teacher then gives several examples, stating in verse seven, “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” With another election just weeks away, Christians must ask which season this is.
But Shouldn't the Church Stay Out of Politics?
I know the narrative because I once lived by it: that “politics does not belong in the pulpit.” However, I must ask, “How can pastors make disciples faithfully if they never show how biblical truth applies to the moral and social questions people actually face?” Is preaching on socially controversial topics getting political, or just being biblically practical? I say it is the latter.
The apostle Paul reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Jesus is not a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, and His kingdom cannot be contained within any human political ideology. Furthermore, the Church must never become an appendage of any political party. My personal party affiliation extends only as far as that party upholds biblical truths and values—and no further.
But heavenly citizenship has never excused believers from our earthly responsibility. If anything, it raises the standard. The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the Jews exiled in Babylon to “seek the peace and prosperity” of the place where they were living (Jeremiah 29:7), and Paul admonished the Church to pray for those in positions of authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2). These passages do not tell Christians to worship political power, but neither do they permit indifference toward the rulers, laws, and communities that affect our neighbors.
Salt and Light
The same Jesus who said that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36) also told His followers they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13–16). Salt that never touches anything preserves nothing. Light hidden under a basket guides no one. Christian citizenship requires more than privately holding biblical convictions. It requires bringing those convictions—humbly, honestly, and lovingly—into the public issues that shape our neighbors’ lives. It also requires voting accordingly.
But Christians must engage differently from those who seek power at any cost. Pulpits should proclaim God’s truth with bold sincerity, personal humility, and love for those who oppose the message. Likewise, followers of Christ should reject all forms of malice, duplicity, and character assassination, even when political allies practice them.
The principle is that believers are in the world but do not belong to the world (see John 17:14–16). The point is, while we live in this world, we have a responsibility to work for its betterment. We do not engage in public life because we believe politics can save us. We do so because loving our neighbors requires us to care about the laws, institutions, and leaders that affect them.
Scripture gives Christians the responsibility to seek our neighbors' good. Our American inheritance gives us an extraordinary opportunity to carry out that responsibility freely.
Our Christian Roots
The Senate opens each day with prayer before reciting the Pledge.¹ Our national motto, written into federal law, is “In God We Trust.”² The Declaration of Independence appeals to “Nature’s God,” our “Creator,” “the Supreme Judge of the world,” and “divine Providence.”³ The founding conviction was that our rights come from God, not government. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, signed the Declaration,⁴ and one major study found the Bible was the most frequently cited book in American political writing from 1760 to 1805.⁵
The Constitution emerged from a society deeply shaped by Christianity, yet it prohibits religious tests for federal office, while the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from establishing a national church.⁶ George Washington assured the Hebrew congregation in Newport that the new government would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”⁷ That is our inheritance: a nation with deep Christian roots that protects liberty for people of every faith and of none. Christians ought to be its most faithful guardians.
When Silence Is Not Faithfulness
If Christians step back from public life, public life does not stand still. School boards still set curriculum. County commissioners still write budgets. Legislatures still pass laws touching life, family, conscience, and religious liberty. The only question is whether those who hold biblical convictions will be in the room to express them.
Jesus’ promise remains true: “I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18). Nothing can stop Christ from building His Church. However, the community we hand our children and grandchildren is another matter. It will be shaped, in part, by whether we prayed, spoke, voted, and served while we had the opportunity, or left the work to others and then grumbled about the results.
Our freedom to worship, speak, and vote has been secured and defended at great cost. Christians should receive those liberties as a stewardship, not neglect them through indifference.
Speak the Truth in Love
So, pray before marking the ballot. Search the Scriptures for the principles that apply. Learn what candidates and measures would actually do. Evaluate candidates by their character, and test their promises and proposals against biblical truth, justice, and the good of our neighbors. Refuse manipulation, fear, intimidation, and falsehood. Speak with conviction without treating opponents as enemies. Engage. Vote. Support. Serve. If God directs and provides the opportunity, step forward as a candidate.
Washington's general election is November 3. Ballots will be mailed by October 16. The deadline to register online or by mail is October 26, while in-person registration remains available through Election Day.⁸
There is a time to keep silent. But when truth is obscured, freedom is threatened, and neighbors need a faithful witness, silence is not spiritual maturity. It is retreat. This is a time to speak—clearly, courageously, lovingly, and biblically.
Notes
U.S. Senate, "The Senate in Session," https://www.senate.gov/legislative/senate-in-session.htm; see also U.S. Senate, "Traditions & Symbols," https://www.senate.gov/about/traditions-symbols.htm.
36 U.S.C. § 302, "National motto," https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title36-section302&num=0&edition=prelim.
National Archives, "Declaration of Independence: A Transcription," https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.
Ibid. (Witherspoon appears among the New Jersey signers.)
Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman's study of American political writings, 1760–1805, as discussed in Daniel L. Dreisbach, Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers (Oxford University Press, 2017), notes, https://academic.oup.com/book/12706/chapter/162752935; see also "Donald S. Lutz," Political Science Today, Cambridge Core, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-today/article/donald-s-lutz/F15B21A0C7278B26E4ECDCD10A72BE21.
Library of Congress, "Religion and the Federal Government, Part 1," Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html.
Library of Congress, "Today in History – August 17," https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-17/.
Washington Secretary of State, "Secretary of State Certifies Candidates and Measures for November General Election," 2026, https://www.sos.wa.gov/about-office/news/2026/secretary-state-certifies-candidates-and-measures-november-general-election.
The Church and the Pulpit cannot remain silent any longer