Dr. Willy Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, delivered the warning during an exclusive interview on The Todd Starnes Show.

"We don't need to be afraid of being engaged. We need to be able to articulate our Christian convictions on the most important issues of the day," Rice said.

The Southern Baptist leader suggested evangelical churches have surrendered ground in the culture wars by avoiding controversial political issues.

"I do think it's important that pastors lean in and not lean out, to step up, as we say," he declared.

Rice argued that church leaders must equip Believers to evaluate political questions through Scripture rather than simply endorse candidates.

"Christians can disagree on a host of political debates," he explained, while insisting that fundamental issues involving human dignity, morality and religious freedom demand Biblical guidance.

His comments come as polling demonstrates the potential influence of Christian voters.

According to Pew Research Center, 81 percent of White evangelical Protestant voters supported President Donald Trump in 2024.

Meanwhile, post-election research from George Barna's Cultural Research Center found that just 56 percent of self-identified Christians voted in the 2024 presidential election, suggesting substantial room for increased participation.

Rice was particularly outspoken when Starnes asked about the growing influence of communism and political Islam.

"A 10 on a scale of one to 10," Rice responded when asked how concerned Christians should be.

"Both of those ideologies are absolutely contrary, first of all, to a Christian worldview," he said.

Rice distinguished political Islamism from Islam as a religion, arguing that movements seeking to impose Islamic political ideology threaten Western freedoms.

"Both of those ideologies, which strangely joined together in a kind of bizarre intersectionality in America, both of those things are direct threats to religious freedom," he warned.

The Baptist leader also condemned efforts to portray Jesus Christ as a socialist.

"To pin that on Jesus is, I mean, to me, that almost borders on blasphemy," Rice said.

Despite his warnings, Rice stressed that churches should remain focused on preaching the Gospel rather than becoming partisan organizations.

"I don't wanna be a red church. I don't wanna be a blue church. I wanna be a Jesus church," he said.  Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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