Pastor AND Politician?

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Can you be a Christian and a politician at the same time?

Is that an oxymoron? So many people are like, well, be careful with faith and politics. And yes, absolutely, the pulpit's not a pulpit for politics, but this guy has been a pastor and he's a congressman.

He is Mark Walker, and he's been a longtime friend of mine. Mark, God bless you, man. Thanks for serving our country, really. This is one of the maybe most turbulent times in history to serve the country, huh? It really is, Stu, and I appreciate the good work, the ministry that you're doing in so many different areas. But I am convinced that God doesn't call us anywhere that we're exempt from being alike for Jesus Christ.

And some could make the case that Washington, D.C. is quite the mission field in itself. Wow, yeah, and it's loud because we're at Dario in North Carolina at Wednesday in the Word, and we even have congressmen come just to hear the Word of God. You didn't get up and you didn't even talk. I mean, you shared one thing about scripture like everyone else was doing, but it's just good to get with a bunch of men of God and get in the Word together, isn't it, Congressman? And you're welcome back anytime, but thanks for coming today. It was my privilege, and Stu, the way you broke down the Word, it's so culturally relevant right now that we get outside of our comfort zone and get out and tell the world, the people that God is intersecting our lives each and every day, are we stopping long enough to share Jesus with them?

I hope that we are. Yeah, so many prejudices, so much, you know, this whole Black Lives Matter thing that's been going on a lot, and there's a lot of people, a lot of my black friends, your black friends are in a lot of pain, and there's a lot of stuff. I was meeting with a black Methodist minister in Charlotte yesterday, and he was talking about just the stuff people go through, and there's still prejudice, but the gospel, Congressman Mark Walker, even as a political guy who, you pass laws, but even you are nodding your head that there's something about Jesus that brings together black and white, and red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.

Historically, your state's capital, Washington DC, has never led on these issues. It's always been God's people rising up to make a difference. The political realm has always followed God's church and God's people to do the right thing. So you can make a law all you want, but it's not going to change your heart, but what's your challenge to the church, to be the church during this time of tribulation with racial tensions, with all the virus junk and all the conspiracies and all the, just everyone's afraid. There's a lot of fear. As a politician who can pass laws and you can make restrictions or you can lighten restrictions, but Congressman Mark Walker, what's your challenge? Put your pastor's hat on and tell us, what do you challenge as a believer who's a politician for Christians out there? I think the best thing is just to follow Jesus' example with a woman at the well, is being compassionate, still being truthful, but leading from a place of love. It's very easy to look at data statistics and we want to be judgmental, but the pain and the fear, whether you want to say it's reality or not, it exists among our different communities.

So how do we leave in love and still be able to tell the truth? That only comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, and God's used you to bring some healing in the black community.

You mentioned to me a couple of things, one of the first keynoters to talk about that a little bit. Yeah, we have been blessed God's favor. We were the only person on this, our side of the aisle, the Republican side of the aisle to give the keynote address at the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. The only Republican to speak at a historical black college university. And in March, thanks be to the Lord, we were the only Republican in the entire US House of Representatives to win the President's Award from the United Negro College Fund.

That's God's work and God's people praying. And of course you have a gospel heart and we're grateful for that. Tell us everyone who you are, a little bit of your background, how you ended up being a Congressman for folks that haven't met you.

It's a fascinating story. Well, I was a pastor for 16 years and just began to grow a burden about our country, where we were headed. This was no longer about Republican Democrat. This is about evil at its core, the enemy working in our halls of Congress, our places, our schools. And I wanted to go to Congress and hopefully lead from a position that led from our heart and our relationship with Christ and to be able to do more than make an argument, but to make a difference. Anybody can make an argument, but when we're walking the Lord, that's when we can see real tangible results making a difference.

Okay. And what's your challenge that, you know, it's a big election year and of course, truth talk, we don't get into vote this way, vote that way, but there are some clear issues that just are absolutely thoroughly biblical when it comes to, you know, a child's right to live and not be aborted and, you know, that sort of thing. How would you challenge Christians to think objectively? I mean, now I'm going to tell you before you say a word about this, there are people listening to this show right now who are, they may be staunch Democrats, they may be diehard Republicans, but what's your challenge in terms of thinking biblically when it comes to your vote? One of the things I think we have to do as believers is separate the personality versus the policy.

And the biggest contrast I can say right now is there's a war going on for human life. We even have a governor who vetoed a bill that would allow life support for babies that survived a botched abortion. We've identified 1,500 adults that survived an abortion and for people to hold the position that those children, those babies should be allowed to die is too big of a leap.

That's why I believe that even though our current president can be quite boisterous and has quite the personality, I think we have to set some of that aside and look at the policy differences specifically when it comes to God's creations. So you're saying that this is the Born Alive Act, I think, and very tragically, Barack Obama, when he was the state senator of Illinois, had two chances to allow a baby that survived a botched abortion to just be cuddled a little bit, likely going to die anyway, but instead of just throwing it away in a trash can or just leaving it on a metal slab and leaving the room, let the nurse hold it. Illegal. Barack Obama twice voted against that.

That's all on record. I interviewed Jill Stancil, who was there as a nurse who quit the hospital because she was so broken heart about that. And now Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, won't even, I mean, how is that, how does that a radical thing to let a little baby, I mean, that's barbarism.

That's like killing our little children in America. What do you say? I mean, I just, it's just tough for anybody.

It really is. And this is going back to our racial division conversations. One of the moments that I had in Congress was sitting across the table at a house oversight sitting with Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood and ask her one question.

So I only have one question. Does it bother you that there are more African American babies aborted in New York than actually born now? Does it bother you? That's the kind of place that we are where the radical left driven by the enemy sometimes is trying to attack the very life.

We only have seven countries in the world that have more aggressive abortion policies than we do now. It's a tragedy. We've got to do something about it. So you're saying don't look at, don't, don't go and look at how nice Trump or Biden or Camilla Harris are.

Don't, don't look at how cute they are, their families. Look exactly at what they believe and how that aligns with what God, because you have a vote into stewardship. I mean, Christians are given an opportunity. We're in a, we're in a Republic, you know, where the, we have, we can go out and cast our vote. And so if you just don't sit, I mean, I heard something like 60, 70% of Christians didn't even vote last election.

That, that is correct. And listen, I'm not sitting here advocating that their president Trump is a, is a Christian leader in our communities. I've had a chance to sit in the Oval Office and share the very gospel of Jesus Christ with the president to break down the atonement and to talk about the things that are important to us. We're going to continue to do that. But at the end of the day, even someone that you may not agree with as far as the approach, take a second, look and look at the policies of the far left that literally want abortion on demand.

That's just one contrast. We could break out religious Liberty. We could talk about many other issues, same sex marriage, you know, all that, and really loving the poor doesn't mean you, you split the family up.

I mean, you know, you, you incentivize families to stay together and, uh, and the whole welfare state, but thank you. How can we pray for you quickly? As we wrap up just a quick visit with Congressman Mark Walker, once in a while, we bump into a famous politician. We're able to get them on our national show, truth talk, Congressman Walker.

What's your quick word? Everyone just pray that, uh, anybody that's, that's out there making decisions would be able to keep close to the Lord because in this culture, in this environment, it's very easy to get distracted. We need discernment. We need God leaders to rise up and continue to move forward. This is the truth network.