Reince Priebus: Time for religious leaders to stop shying away from politics

Former White House Chief of Staff and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that pastors need to stop being gun shy when talking about politics at the pulpit.
"Our churches cannot be, you know, vanilla ice cream and cotton candy on Sunday morning. We have to challenge our congregations and challenge them with a very least participate in the process,"  Priebus told David Brody.

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Priebus joined Brody on The Pod's Honest Truth and Chad Connelly, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and head of the group Faith Wins, an organization dedicated to getting faith leaders encourage congregations vote with Biblical values in mind.
In 2013, Priebus, then RNC chair, tapped Connelly to serve as the group’s first-ever director of faith engagement. Priebus and Connelly have joined forces once again to mobilize some 10,000 churches around the country about the importance of their involvement in the public arena.
Pastors have walked a fine line between offering pastoral leadership and harsh criticism when talking about politics. Since 1954, the Johnson Amendment has banned non-profit organizations and churches from supporting political candidates, which President Trump opposes.
Priebus, part of the president's larger faith-based outreach efforts in Trump's re-election campaign, said that shouldn't stop religious leaders from -- at a minimum -- being involved in the political process.
"I think the issues of the people of faith, more to the forefront by engaging our pastors and getting registered not, you may think well this doesn't sound very earth shattering in fact it is that engaging pastors engaging people to go to church in the political process that's not violating any laws," he said.