“You can rest assured that I will be telling our congregation to vote for you,” Second Calvary Baptist Church head pastor Geoffrey Guns told Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones in a video shot on Wednesday.
Guns’s full-throated support for Jones, alongside his endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger, followed nearly $30,000 in “sponsorship” payments from the campaign account of state Sen. Louise Lucas, the top Democrat in Virginia’s upper chamber and the public face of the movement to gerrymander Virginia. Lucas’s power in Virginia would be greatly expanded if a Republican were not in the governor’s mansion, standing athwart her legislative agenda.
Beyond telling his congregation to vote for Jones, Guns’s church also hosted a campaign event for Spanberger as part of her pre-Election Day bus tour on Oct. 26 and filmed a video with Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi, endorsing her candidacy.
“When I heard you talk about [funding historically black colleges and universities] that really resonated with me and I said ‘this is the person I need to support for lieutenant governor,” Guns, who is African American and leads a predominantly black congregation, told Hashmi in a video posted on Oct. 14. “I want you to support her as well,” the pastor told his congregation.
Guns has said he “proudly endorse[s]” Spanberger for governor, shared a Democratic voter guide with his congregation, invited Spanberger to campaign from his church’s pulpit, and encouraged his congregants at length to vote for Democrats during a recent sermon.
“Voting is not merely political duty, it is prophetic stewardship,” Guns said during his Oct. 26 sermon. “We must vote and we must go to the polls and we must turn out in big numbers and you must tell your sons and your daughters there’s only one choice for governor … Abigail!”
Guns yelled “there’s one choice” at multiple points during the sermon, referring to his support for Spanberger.
Lucas’s campaign paid Second Calvary Baptist Church $14,000 in 2023 for a “diamond sponsorship,” a further $5,000 that year for a “platinum sponsorship,” and $7,500 in 2024 for further sponsorship. Guns’s church also received a $500 donation from Democratic state Sen. Angelia Williams Graves in 2023 after he endorsed her.
Americans generally oppose houses of worship endorsing political candidates, with 77% of adults polled by Pew Research in 2022 saying churches should not favor one candidate over another in elections.
This isn’t the first time Second Calvary Baptist Church has melded politics and religion.
In 2021, the left-of-center Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote to the IRS to complain that the church violated nonprofit organization guidelines by allowing activist Stacey Abrams to give speeches urging them to vote for McAuliffe, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate that year. The organization’s letter cited IRS regulations that prevent churches from “[participating in or intervening in] … any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office,” lest they lose their nonprofit organization status.
Under President Donald Trump, however, the IRS has said it will allow churches to endorse political candidates without jeopardizing their nonprofit organization status.
Lucas and Second Calvary Baptist Church did not respond to requests for comment.
