Should churches endorse political candidates?

David Koyzis has a better vision. Your church could learn from it.

David Koyzis, author of Citizenship without Illusions (InterVarsity, 2024). His earlier book Political Visions and Illusions (also published by IVP) has been translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil.

In 1992, on the last Sunday before the US presidential election, I was visiting a conservative evangelical church. The pastor wanted to encourage attenders to vote for incumbent president George H. W. Bush and vice president Dan Quayle. But he didn’t want to be accused of officially endorsing a candidate from the pulpit, because that could endanger the church’s tax-exempt status.

The pastor began, “I just want to remind you that when God wanted to get Moses’ attention, he used a burning …”

The congregation shouted, “BUSH!”

The pastor continued, “And when the Israelites were complaining about lack of meat to eat in the desert, God fed them …”

The biblically knowledgeable members of the congregation shouted, “QUAIL!” (which sounds the same as “Quayle”).

The pastor concluded, “As you can see, God tells his people what they need to know.”

If this pastor were speaking today, he could be more direct. The Trump administration has said it will not enforce a 71-year-old law that prohibited churches and other nonprofits from endorsing political candidates.

But should Christian churches endorse particular candidates even if they are allowed to do so?

My answer is: only if they don’t care about sharing the gospel with people who support competing candidates.

There’s a better way to think about Christian public engagement. It is wonderfully modeled by political scientist David Koyzis in Citizenship without Illusions (2024), his second book for InterVarsity Press.

For those who don’t have much reading time, the remainder of this post captures some key points. I would encourage you to read Koyzis’s relatively short volume yourself. With nine chapters averaging just 16 pages each, plus discussion questions on each chapter, it would make an excellent book for a study group on the topic.

Although most of Koyzis’s illustrations come from the US and Canada, he cites examples from every continent, so global readers should feel included in the conversation. The book requires careful reading, as the author reaches his conclusions through deep reflection on Scripture, history, and political theory, but you don’t have to be an academic or politically experienced to understand it.

Koyzis lays the groundwork for a deeper understanding of Christian citizenship by discussing what he calls “pluriformity”—the fact that societies are composed of “a multiplicity of social formations, each of which has its proper place and normative task in God’s world.” We have allegiances to family, church, neighborhood, schools, workplace, social clubs, multiple levels of government, and more. We engage in many spheres of life, such as education, healthcare, and culture. And as Christians, we must balance our responsibilities to our country, to all humanity, and to the kingdom of God.

In this context, politics is one important venue, but not the only one. Thus, some Christians may legitimately be called to politics as their vocation while others invest their effort elsewhere. (I have frequently critiqued the common insistence on “the Christian’s responsibility to vote,” contending that Christians heavily invested in other spheres of life should not be ashamed of deciding not to spend time considering their voting choices.)

Koyzis thoughtfully discusses how Christians can best participate effectively in corrupt and inhospitable societies. His recommendations include working locally rather than at higher political levels and through nonprofit organizations, such as a Christian social-service entity in Egypt and publishing houses in Brazil.

Koyzis argues forcefully against attempts to deny equal participation in the public square to people of faith. “Secularists,” he writes, “give themselves an unfair advantage, pretending that their own convictions are not religious while dogmatically asserting them in the shared public spaces.”

But he also defends an irenic approach to public engagement, on both theological and pragmatic grounds. Koyzis says the presence of political differences between Christians comes from our different yet legitimate emphases—e.g., one Christians prioritizes protecting individual freedom while another is seeking to apply the biblical command to protect the vulnerable. He boldly argues that this political fragmentation can be a good thing, because it pushes all of us to abandon knee-jerk partisanship in favor of greater spiritual discernment: “It would be far better if Christians … were to recognize that they have more in common with each other than with their fellow Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives.”

Koyzis points out that “in many areas of life we must compromise, especially on practical applications of principles, for the sake of getting along with those who are different from us.” As a tragic example of failing to recognize the time for prudent practical compromise, Koyzis recounts the debate over abortion legislation in Canada, which was narrowly defeated in 1991. Some pro-life Christians opposed the bill because it did not go far enough; ever since then, Canada, uniquely in the West, has had no law whatsoever restricting abortion. Koyzis is similarly realistic with regard to conservative advocacy on LGBTQ issues: “In an increasingly divided society, the best we can do may be to try to maintain a secure space to live in accordance with our convictions without undue interference.”

Koyzis exemplifies realism, hopefulness, graciousness, humility, and nuance in presenting a Christian way of citizenship and political life that honors God and neighbor. These are the tools we need to counsel Christians who insist that they know what God wants in the political realm but are actually seeking what’s best for themselves, with little regard for God.

Koyzis avoids talking about current political situations, wanting to extend the shelf life of his book beyond a few years. Trump doesn’t even show up in his index. But his approach offers a valuable corrective to cantankerous Christians of various stripes who seem to prefer culture wars and self-righteous confrontation over building communities characterized by respectful interaction and reasonable compromise. If politically conservative US Christians would heed Koyzis, they—and all of us—might not be on such a disastrous trajectory in this chaotic year.