Ryan Burge

I think in some ways by them not choosing a side in the political fight that we're in right now, people want to go to a place that's coded, left or right.

And the mainline resisted all that.

And I think that's actually part of their demise is because people couldn't figure out what they are.

I think it could be good for the church, but bad for the country.

Like, I think let me make this point clear.

Most pastors are not even evangelical pastors are not standing up at the pulpit on Sunday and saying the Trump administration is great.

We support their immigration policy.

Like, this is a misconception that people who do not grow up in religion have about religion is like I always say, like evangelicals are, you know, don't go to that many political meetings.

And the first comment is like, yeah, they do every Sunday.

And I'm like, no, no, you haven't been to an evangelical church.

They're not being overtly political.

Now, they might talk about their view on marriage or their view on gender or something like that, but it's not inherently political like that.

Where the politics comes from in a lot of these churches is the bottom up.

It's coming from the pews.

It's coming from the Bible study.

It's coming from the parking lots and the hallways.

That's what happened in my church.

I never talked about politics from the pulpit, but people before and after church, I'd hear them talk all the time about politics.

And it was

You know, it was Republican politics, to be quite honest with you, because I'm in a Republican area.