Whose Pulpit Is It?
Two days before Election Day, Bishop Marvin Winans named the Senate candidates in his Detroit sanctuary, and the congregation cheered for the one who wasn't there. Sitting beside the Republican was Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, who walked outside after the service and endorsed him. Don Jackson and Daysha Voss ask who that moment was for: the history that gives the Black church its power, the Johnson Amendment that keeps pulpits from endorsing, a week of bishops, a pope and a preschool case, and the one place nobody else gets to go with you. The episode never tells anyone how to vote. A pastor can't vote for you. A party can't. Tomorrow belongs to you.
Story Anchor
Every campaign ends up in a Black church on the last Sunday before an election, because the church holds something an ad can't buy: legitimacy. This episode doesn't tell anyone how to vote and doesn't tell churches to stay out of politics. It asks one question: when a candidate uses a pulpit, a pew or the church steps as a stage, who is that moment for, the congregation or the cameras?
The Pattern
The Church as a Stage
On Sunday, Nov. 1, Bishop Marvin Winans asked the candidates at Perfecting Church in Detroit to stand. Republican Mike Rogers got polite applause; Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who was not there, got cheers, and Winans said, 'Y'all clapping and he ain't even here.' Winans endorsed no one. Rep. Haley Stevens, who in August had called Rogers a 'rubber stamp' for Trump, sat beside him and endorsed him outside after the service. Schumer called it a 'despicable betrayal,' Michigan's Democratic chair said she is not a party member, and her chief of staff of eight years resigned with much of her staff. El-Sayed spent the morning at Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC with Rep. Jim Clyburn. The same week, twelve Catholic bishops said the White House used their Oval Office prayer as a campaign image, and Pope Leo XIV mailed a ballot home to Illinois without saying how he voted. The Johnson Amendment still bars tax-exempt churches from endorsing candidates; a 2025 IRS attempt to loosen it was dismissed by a federal court in March 2026.
Consciousness Questions
This guide doesn't ask you to distrust the church or any party. It asks you to notice when trust is being borrowed, and to remember that your conscience was never anybody else's to spend.
- Think of the last time a politician visited your church or a church you know. Did they come back after the election?
- What is the difference between a church organizing its people to vote and a candidate using a church as a backdrop?
- Whose voices have been telling you how to vote this season, and which of them have earned that trust?
- What would it feel like to walk into the voting booth as only yourself, not as anyone's congregation or base?
Community Context
Community voices gathering.
Academy Pathways
Pathways being curated.
Transformation Practice
The Booth
Write down every voice that has told you how to vote this season: ads, family, church, news, social media. Next to each, write whether it asked you to think or told you what to think.
Before you vote, sit somewhere quiet for three minutes. Picture a curtain closing behind you, and the noise falling away. Ask: not what do they want, but what do I know is right for my neighbors?
Offer someone a ride to the polls, or check that a neighbor knows where their polling place is. If anyone has trouble voting, share the Election Protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE.
Say quietly, or in your heart: 'My conscience is my own. My voice is not for sale. I walk in as myself, and I walk out as myself.'
A pastor can't vote for you. A party can't. The ballot is the one sanctuary nobody else can enter.
Open the Transformation HubCampaign Opportunity
Campaign connections being identified.
Open the Campaign DashboardContinue Your Journey
Four pathways forward. Which one calls to you?
Credits & Transparency
Methodology
Companion guide built from the Episode 44 script and Substack deep dive.
Sources referenced
- Detroit Free Press: Perfecting Church service (Nov. 1, 2026)
- CBS News: Stevens and Rogers (Nov. 1-2, 2026)
- CNN: Anderson Cooper interview with Haley Stevens (Nov. 1, 2026)
- Fox News: Jeffries on next steps (Nov. 2, 2026)
- Bloomberg Law: dismissal of National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent (March 31, 2026)
- AP via News4Jax: bishops regret White House prayer photo (Oct. 25, 2026)
- CBS News, CNN and AP: Pope Leo XIV votes by mail (Oct. 30, 2026)
- Supreme Court docket No. 25-581, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy