Pastor David Roach leads the Shiloh Baptist Church, just outside of Mobile, Alabama.

He's never asked his congregants straight up what their political views are, but he has

a pretty good idea.

I'm certain that the church I pastor leans toward being Trump supporters and definitely

leans toward being Republican.

But Roach told NPR, he doesn't want his congregations' religious identity and political identity

to be synonymous with each other.

We have addressed in an intentional way that the church shouldn't be identified with a political

belief, and certainly not more so than our belief in the gospel.

This means, for example, that he doesn't want outsiders to see his largely conservative

congregation and assume they're careless about pandemic restrictions.

And that we even need to make welcome people that wear masks more frequently, have a

different stance toward vaccination and who voted democratic in the last election.

Roach says that kind of welcome attitude goes over well with the churchgoers at Shiloh

Baptist.

When you get people that have a deep commitment to Christ in a room and you start talking

about the need to place Christ above those political divisions and even intentionally

cross them, that resonates.

Or to put it more succinctly.

The church is not a Trump church.

The church is a Jesus church.

But elsewhere, it can be a very different story.

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