Marvin Winans offers clarification after Mike Rogers, Haley Stevens appear at his church
Bishop Marvin Winans has clarified that his congregation does not endorse political candidates running for public office after his church hosted Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, who made headlines that day for endorsing the Republican.
On the Sunday before Tuesday's midterm elections, Stevens, who lost in the Democratic Senate primary earlier this year, appeared alongside Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers outside of Winans’ Detroit congregation, The Perfecting Church. Stevens drew the ire of Democrats that same day when she posted a video endorsing Rogers over the Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
In response to the criticism over the politicians’ presence at his church, Winans told ABC News that "we don’t endorse" and noted that he invited Rogers as well as El-Sayed. Winans said he was told by Rogers that he would come by the church but wasn't told what day.
“I was told that [El-Sayed] was coming, and we were looking for both of them to come,” Winans continued, noting that he was unaware at the time of Stevens’ last-minute decision to drop her endorsement of El-Sayed and back Rogers instead.
“Let me say this: that our church is open to everyone and we are not endorsing candidates. We are just allowing them. No one had a mic, no one spoke. I was the only one that spoke.”
The bishop said the church acknowledged several candidates in different races who attended the service, and all they did in response was stand up, then sit down.
“It was only after the service when it was all over that I understood that they were outside doing a press conference and I started getting all of these as if I knew or I was in cahoots,” he recounted.
Winans added that he was not bothered by Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers shortly after the service, saying “this is America and we have the right to vote for who we want to vote for.”
“No matter who wins, we’re going to have to end up praying for them,” the bishop said. “I have my assignment, and my job is to pray for those that are in authority.”
The Perfecting Church reiterated this statement in a Facebook post on Sunday, explaining that “it is the norm for candidates to visit churches all over the state.”
“When visiting Perfecting Church, candidates are acknowledged and the congregation is informed of what office he or she is running for,” the church stated. “Candidates from all political parties visit Perfecting Church, and they are acknowledged; however, Perfecting Church endorses no candidate.”
El-Sayed defeated Rogers on Tuesday, becoming the first Muslim elected to the Senate in U.S. history. His victory was part of Democrats' broader victory in reclaiming both chambers of Congress.
Last month, Lifeway Research published a report on a survey of more than 1,000 Protestant pastors, which found that 93% of respondents did not plan to endorse any political candidates during worship services.
This comes even after the Internal Revenue Service said last year it would not remove churches' tax-exempt status if their pastors made such endorsements.
