By Liz Lykins
Pastor Landon Schott preaches at Mercy Culture Church in Ft. Worth, Texas. (Photo: Facebook)
A Texas megachurch pastor announced on Instagram Monday that if someone votes for a Democrat, they are not a Christian.
Landon Schott, senior pastor at multi-campus Mercy Culture Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, wrote, “I’ve been asked over and over ‘Pastor Landon are you saying you’re not a Christian if you vote for a Democrat?’ LET ME BE VERY CLEAR… THAT IS CORRECT!!
He continued, “YOU ARE NOT A BIBLE BELIEVING, JESUS FOLLOWING CHRISTIAN IF YOU SUPPORT THE GODLESS ROMANS 1 EVIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!”
Schott planted his non-denominational Church congregation in 2019, according to the church’s LinkedIn. He founded it after receiving a blessing from disgraced Gateway Church founder Robert Morris in 2017.
Schott now leads the church’s six campuses and eight services, one of which includes a Spanish-speaking congregation. Pastor Tom Lane, a former executive pastor at Gateway Church who claims he had no knowledge of the child-sex abuse allegations against Morris, currently serves as an apostolic elder at Mercy Church.
In Monday’s post, Schott labeled Democrats as “The Demon Party.” He added that those who support the Democratic party are “simply a Luke-warm ‘pretend Christian.’”
“I’m not a Republican and (there) are evils on both sides,” Schott wrote. “But tell me again how you’re a Christian that Biblically supports the DEMONIC policies of the Democratic Party?!?”
Schott’s remarks come as the Democratic National Convention is currently being held in Chicago. The event kicked off Monday to promote Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s potential presidential candidate.
Schott doubles down on his opinion
On Tuesday, Schott further doubled down on his stance in a video post.
He cited the Democratic party’s views on abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism for the reasoning behind his statement. Democrats support perversion, idol worship, and child sacrifice, he said.
“I know people don’t like this because most people aren’t pastored, most people aren’t confronted spiritually, and most pastors just care if people show up and give,” he said. “I don’t really care if you like me. I don’t care if you go to our church. . . . If you think aligning with a party that is flippantly murdering children and celebrating it . . . friend, you are not on the Lord’s side.”
He addressed concerns that Democrats are the only party that cares about addressing poverty. He claimed that “that’s not true.” He instead said Democrats are destroying their cities with policies that don’t work.
He added, “The most devastated cities in America are Democrat cities because their policies don’t work. It’s mind-boggling.”
He also reprimanded black Christians who plan to vote for Harris because they are black.
“It’s the same thing that gay Christians do. You try to put an identity before your Christianity,” he said. “A gay Christian? There’s no such thing. There’s no category. I’m a black Christian? I’m sorry, there’s no such category. There’s no such category as a white Christian.”
He noted that he pastors a multicultural, diverse church. But he added that as a pastor, his role is to cut off false thinking and sinful mindsets by calling out the party’s demonic ways.
Schott equated voting for a Democrat with sinning.
“A group of people that pretend they’re Christians, but they vote for policies that are not Christianity or biblical values, it’s literally devil worship,” Schott said. “If you are voting for these policies you are deceived. You are not a true follower of Jesus.”
He emphasized, “This will be the fall of America; this will be the fall of American Christianity.”
Controversial pastor Greg Locke commented on Schott’s post, stating “Amen!! I pray the media is easier on you than when I said it a couple of years ago!! They came out with a vengeance. Press on Man of God!!”
Prominent pastor Dwight McKissic pushes back
Prominent pastor Dwight McKissic, who serves as the senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, pushed back against the idea of bashing someone solely based on the party they vote for.
“It’s impossible to vote for either party, or major party’s presidential nominee without engaging in moral compromise,” McKissic wrote in a post on X yesterday. “The Kingdom of God is not on the ballot. Neither is Christ The King.”
Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, speaks during services in Arlington, Texas, in June 2020.
McKissic explained that both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of unrighteousness.
“Our voting decision ought not be based on our perception of which party or candidate represents righteousness as we weigh or define righteousness,” he said. “But rather which person that we believe will best govern the country, and fulfill the responsibilities of government as spelled out in our founding governance, and aspirational documents.”
Noting former President Trump’s “34 felony convictions, racial discrimination suits he’s settled with monetary payouts . . . and admission of sexual assaults.” McKissic urged people not question his morality based on his voting decision.
Other pastors condemn voting for Democrats
In recent years, other pastors have made similar statements to Schott about voting for Democrats.
Alton R. Williams, pastor at World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church in Memphis, Tennessee, told congregants he couldn’t vote for a party that is “for all kinds of sexual perversions,” during a July sermon.
“I can’t vote for a party that is going to accept transgenders going into women’s restrooms,” he said. “I can’t do it. I can’t go with a party that wants to cut little girls’ breasts off to make them boys. I can’t go with a party that says you can be a boy today and a girl tomorrow. . . I can’t support a party that wants to remove God from its party platform.”
Dr. Albert Mohler
In 2022, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, claimed Christians are “unfaithful” if they “vote wrongly,” which many interpreted as condemning Christians who vote Democrat.
“We have a responsibility to make certain that Christians understand the stewardship of the vote, which means the discipleship of the vote, which means the urgency of the vote, the treasure of the vote,” Mohler said. “And they need to understand that insofar as they do not vote, or they vote wrongly, they are unfaithful because the vote is a powerful stewardship.”
Earlier this month, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who embraces Christian nationalism, encouraged pastors to tell their congregations to vote for Donald Trump.
“There is only one way to save this country,” Kirk said at a political training conference in Dallas, Texas. “Awake the beast that is the American church.”
Charlie Kirk speaks at a Turning Point USA Faith “Freedom Night in America” event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, in May 2023.
In a recent podcast with The Roys Report (TRR), Phoenix Pastor Caleb Campbell confronted the idea that Christians have to use political power to rescue America.
While noting that Jesus confronted Peter when he resorted to violence in the Garden of Gethsemane, Campbell said: “What Jesus shows us is that if you really want to transform society, If you really want to shape culture, if you truly want to see a righteous people, you will lay down the sword and pick up the way of the cross. You will, as Philippians 2 says, ‘follow me and take on the form of a servant . . .
“And so my concern with American Christian nationalism is not primarily with the ends that they’re trying to get to—a righteous and just community—it’s the means by which they’re trying to get there, which is domination, power, culture war.”
Freelance journalist Liz Lykins writes for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.