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I am writing this newsletter article on Friday, November 6, 2026, three days after the political slaughter of the Republican Party in the midterm elections. If my life were driven and governed by politics, I’d probably be a mess today. That is not the case.
Why not?
God is still on His throne.
He didn’t wake up on Wednesday and say, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming!” He will still have the last word (see Psalm 2, especially in The Passion Translation). And, we are still in the fight with Him.
This newsletter goes out to roughly 2,500 email addresses. Every month we add a few. Every month we lose fewer than we add. Of those 2,500, some are whom we would consider our “core.” You not only receive the monthly newsletter, you also open it, read it, and get engaged in our Community Action Teams (CATs). It is to you I am primarily addressing in this month’s newsletter.
That said, I am not implying that what I have to say is not important to the rest of you, our faithful followers. This is for everybody, even those trolling Restore Minnesota. You know who you are.
So, here we go . . .
Like you, I have heard reports, read articles, sent and received emails and text messages, and have even received several phone calls all regarding the midterm election results. I have been communicating with folks from California to Alabama to Florida to Texas and, certainly throughout Minnesota. The common thread is the question, “What the heck happened?” (OK, those weren’t the exact words but this is a Christian, family-friendly newsletter.)
Here’s what happened: Republicans lost. Conservatives lost. Christians and biblical values lost. It was a bloody, comprehensive defeat.
At this time, the two major identifiable reasons are:
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There was a 40 point swing from pro-conservative to pro-socialist by the young men in this country. That’s a large number.
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It is consistently coming out that only 17% of evangelicals voted. That’s right ... 17%. In other words, the church did not show up once again and fulfill it’s biblical duties.
Our nation, founded by and under the influence of the political sermons of the pastors of the late 1600’s and throughout the 1700’s (of which I have copies of many), and our biblical values were defeated because Christians abdicated once again and handed the country over to those who actually hate God and hate America. They scream it publicly. They voted in like manner. And the results are both chilling and alarming … from a human point of view.
The “church” on the left was highly involved in organizing and pushing the leftist Marxist/Islamist agenda from their pulpits to their community organized efforts. They always are. The ones yelling separation of church and state are the ones actively working to control the church and state. They told us what they believe and what they were going to do. We made sure to get out their “playbooks” from both the Democratic Socialists of America website and “The Red Line” published by Intercessors for America. They were not hiding. They never do. This happens over and over and over again.
The church, the “biblical” church, still doesn’t get it. They remained silent … again. And, as we all know, silence is complicity.
Let’s pause for a moment and thank those who do get it, who did not stay silent, for even in Minnesota there are a few who come to mind, namely:
♦ Rob Ketterling of River Valley
♦ Jason Strand of Eagle Brook
♦ Mike Smith of Redeeming Love
♦ Vern Peltz of Word of Life Ministries
♦ Steve Royalty of Bridgeview
♦ Mark Henry of Revive
♦ Dave Huizenga of Bridgewood
♦ Troy Dobbs of Grace Church
♦ Derrick Ross of Celebration Church
♦ Tomas Walek of Payne Reliever
♦ Johnny Rivera of Rivers of Living Water
♦ Scott Peterson of Solid Rock Worthington
♦ Ben Davis of Remnant Ministries
♦ Mac and Jim Hammond of Living Word Christian Center
These stood strong for biblical values. They gave biblical instruction to their congregations and, in some cases, to the people of Minnesota, as to the roles, duties and responsibilities of Christians as biblical citizens in our culture. (I’m sure I missed some others. These are those I know and/or follow. If you taught your congregations the duty of applied biblical citizenship, if you taught true biblical values and instructed your congregants to vote, thank you!)
But, these few were not enough.
Too many pastors and “spiritual leaders” did not have the biblical backbone to do the right thing and help their congregants, even when their congregants asked for their help. According to researcher George Barna, 86% of American pastors will not help their congregants know what the Bible has to say about cultural issues. 86%!! That, my friends, is dereliction of duty.
In fact, two different pastors in Eagan would not even allow one of our strong Christian leaders – a gentleman in Christ if there ever was one, a gentleman who has been leading a prayer network in our Capitol for several years, a gentleman whom God called to run for office – these two pastors would not even allow this gentleman to enter into the doors of the church on a weekday to discuss with them the upcoming elections! Why? "Because we don’t do politics here."
Baloney!
I have been an ordained pastor since February 1, 1981. I have served in multiple church and para-church organizations. I have worked to some degree with pastors from nearly 30 different denominations. Please don’t tell me you don’t do politics. If you really believe that it is time for you to resign. Why? Because the only places outside of the world of politics in St. Paul that I have watched and experienced dirtier politics is on church boards and Minnesota youth hockey boards! Please quit telling us you don’t do politics. If the pastors in our founding era who thought like you would have prevailed, we would still be colonies of England ... or Nazi Germany.
Too many pastors are more concerned about which check is going to walk out the door or they have more fear of their board than they have fear of the Lord. They are not leading. They are hirelings and forget their paycheck comes from God, not the church. And like the German church in the 1930’s and 1940’s, they just make the music louder as the trains filled with Nazi prisoners roll through their towns. Only today in America it is Marxists, Islamists, and illegal aliens taking the church hostage … because we allow it.
If these pastors were really doing their jobs, Restore Minnesota would not be needed. But, today, we are needed more than ever.
So, to those of you few who are still with me, you Restore Minnesota leaders, I am asking you:
1. Remember, we are a Christian education ministry first and foremost.
We help people find God’s calling on their lives, equip them, and give them a place to apply it.
2. This means we are not primarily a political machine, no matter how much we engage in governmental or political initiatives.
Our charge is to be a biblical voice into every sphere of culture, including government and politics. It is time to up our game in our own backyards.
3. We will never agree with each other 100%.
But, we must find unity. As one pastor said recently, unity doesn’t come because we pray for it. It comes because we work for it. In the midst of our agreements and disagreements, let’s find ways to get biblical answers to our issues and unite around those.
4. Let’s not be like those who attack their own.
Let’s continue to work with one another with love, respect, honor and dignity. We are not a BPOU. We are a Christ-centered ministry. Remember Philippians 1:27. It can be translated three ways. “Live lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ” and “Behave as citizens worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ” and, in the classical Greek it is not a stretch to “do politics in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Politics is nothing more than the effective manner of governing. We don’t run from it. We embrace it.
Our next Restore MN Leaders Zoom meeting is Nov. 15. If you are on a leadership team of your local CAT, please be on the call. We need to talk. Some of you haven’t been around for a while. It’s time to come back. It’s time to come home.
Some of you are shaking your heads over this article. While I am not in their league, they did the same thing with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 and Eric Metaxas in 2022.
Dr. King wrote a letter that started with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”. It is his book “Letter From A Birmingham Jail.” Metaxas wrote “Letter to the American Church.” Their books are best sellers. However, a significant response to both of them was “Don’t rock the boat."
Well, to all of you who buy into the “don’t rock the boat” philosophy, prepare yourselves. What you just voted into office or allowed to be voted into office by not showing up is going to rock your worlds for the next two years, maybe longer. We will talk about expected legislation issues at another time but, in the meantime . . .
Don’t merely rock the boat. Flip the darn thing over!
God is on the throne. We are not done. We are just warming up.
Dale
Rev. Dale A. Witherington, Chief Steward
Restore Minnesota / Restore Minnesota ACTION
Dale@RestoreMN.org
www.RestoreMN.org
PS. Governor Walz or governor-elect Klobuchar will be appointing a senator to fill Klobuchar’s seat until a special election to be held in November 2027. We need to start praying right now for God to raise up the right person to represent Him and win that seat. |
