Dear Editor,

For generations our political machines have sought to use the Church, borrow its moral authority, blur its witness, and quietly absorb it into their agendas. Those days must now be declared as over.

It is time to shatter that expectation. It is time to break the old game into pieces.

As Church, we must offer our political organisations not a convenient ally, but a clear choice. Pastors and Christians are free to vote for those they want. But as Church we must declare a new future: a future built not on complicit support, but on public conviction; a future in which we champion the required character for leadership; in which we demand integrity, wisdom, and justice in those who seek to govern; and we make it unmistakably clear — political organisations must decide whether their candidates reflect these godly qualities.

We must declare a future in which we advance an agenda born of faith, not of factions, an agenda that protects the vulnerable, honours God, and upholds human dignity. And we must be clear. Parties must choose whether to align their platforms with our faith-driven priorities.

We must declare a future in which we set a minimum standard of ethical conduct, rooted in timeless truth, and compel, not by force, but by free option, every party and leader to decide if he/she will meet that standard or fall below it.

And we must declare a future in which there is no place in our ranks for pastoral compromise with unethical agendas.

When we do all this — when we stand unapologetically on the word of God and the call of conscience — we will finally break the spell of negative partisanship in the Church. We need to. We will end, once and for all, the presumption that the Church can be co-opted, quieted, or used.

We are not a voting bloc. That is an insult. But we are a conscience bloc with shared belief.

And from September 4, 2025, when the election is over, and the future confronts us, let the Church community tell politicians: We vote for candidates, but we do not follow a party; we support ideas, but we follow a king.

Pastor Michael McAnuff-Jones

Christian Life Fellowship