According to the senior pastor of a Fort Worth church, you can’t be a Christian if you vote for a Democrat.
In an Instagram post on Monday, August 19, Landon Schott of Mercy Culture Church called any follower of the “Demon Party” a “fake Christian.”
“I am not a Republican and there is evil on both sides, but tell me again how you can be a Christian who supports the DEMONIC policies of the Democratic Party on a Biblical basis?!?” Schott wrote.
He called the Democratic Party’s support for LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access an “evil stance” that “goes against Bible-based Christianity.” The Mercy Culture Church Instagram account gave the post its virtual blessing, commenting, “Preach!”
The next day, Schott reiterated his position in an Instagram video, saying the Democrats’ policies were “literally devil worship” and would mean “the downfall of American Christianity.”
Bee Moorhead, executive director of the interfaith political organization Texas Impact, disagrees with Schott.
“It diminishes the deep meaning of being a Christian to say that a secular political party can define your faith,” Moorhead told LoneStarLive.com. “Anyone who thinks you can name political teams and say that Christians have to be on one political team or another is missing the point that Christianity is not part of the secular political process.”
Online commenters questioned whether Schott’s statements violated Mercy Culture’s tax-exempt status with the IRS, with some saying they would have reported the church to the federal agency.
Mercy Culture is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that is prohibited from participating in political campaigns under the Internal Revenue Code. The law also prohibits voter education or voter registration activities that show evidence of bias, favor one candidate over another, oppose a candidate in any way, or have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates.
The IRS does not prohibit the leaders of tax-exempt organizations from speaking as individuals, but it does require them to “refrain from making partisan comments in official publications of the organization or at official events of the organization.”
Moorhead said Schott did not violate the tax code because he did not endorse a candidate. In Schott’s video, posted on Tuesday, August 20, he said he is not a “big Trump supporter” and does not identify as a Republican.
“Tax status is pretty much geared towards telling people how to vote, which is different than saying if you don’t vote the way you do, you’re going to hell,” Moorhead said. “It’s actually not the same as having ministers get in the pulpit and endorse candidates or having candidates give campaign speeches from the pulpit.”
Schott has done just that in the past, endorsing political candidates in several sermons and hanging a church elder’s campaign ad behind the pulpit. He doesn’t seem to be worried about it, as he has repeatedly told the IRS to “come and take away the church’s 501(c)(3) status.”
