Mercy Culture Church Pastor Landon Schott: ‘You’re not a Christian if you vote for a Democrat’

Landon Schott, senior lead pastor of the multi-campus Mercy Culture Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, doubled down Tuesday morning on a controversial declaration made Monday that Americans who vote for Democrats aren't Christian.

"I'm not a big Trump guy. I'm not a Republican … but there is only one party that is standing up at their convention saying that 'we're going to overturn Roe v. Wade.' Listen to me very clearly. I know people don't like this because most people aren't pastored, most people aren't confronted spiritually, and most pastors just care if people show up and give. And if they show up and give, then they don't care," Schott said in an Instagram video.

"I couldn't care less. I don't really care if you like me. I don't care if you go to our church. I care that you know God and that you're right with God. ... If you think that aligning with a party that is flippantly murdering children and celebrating it … friend, you are not on the Lord's side," he added.

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Schott planted Mercy Culture Church — a non-denominational, charismatic congregation — after he was blessed by controversial Gateway Church founder Robert Morris in 2017.

He now leads seven campuses with thousands of followers, including an online operation and a Spanish-speaking flock.

Pastor Tom Lane, a former executive pastor at Gateway Church who recently denied having any knowledge of child-sex abuse allegations currently being investigated against Morris, is an apostolic elder at Mercy Church.

In his initial Instagram post on Monday, Schott branded the Democratic Party as "The Demon Party" and delivered his very blunt opinion about Christians who support the party.

Citing Romans 1 and Revelation 3, he wrote: 

“I’ve been asked over and over ‘Pastor Landon are you saying you’re not a Christian if you vote for a Democrat?’ LET ME BE VERY CLEAR… THAT IS CORRECT!! YOU ARE NOT A BIBLE BELIEVING, JESUS FOLLOWING CHRISTIAN IF YOU SUPPORT THE GODLESS ROMANS 1 EVIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY! … Please, stop pretending you’re a follow[er] of Jesus. You’re simply a Luke-warm ‘pretend Christian!!!’” 

Though he says he isn't a Republican and believes there are "evils on both sides," Schott stopped just short of endorsing the Republican Party. He listed the agenda of the Democratic Party, including the party's support for abortion, homosexuality and transgenderism. 

The Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago, Illinois. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to accept the party's nomination to potentially become the first woman and the nation's 47th president on Thursday.

"It blows my mind how people that think they are following Jesus can be aligned with worldly celebrities, wicked world leaders, demonically led politicians that defy God, that defy God's word, that don't want the Bible in school, that don't want anything to do with God in society, but you think that you're a Christian? You think that you're a follower of Jesus?" Schott asked on Tuesday.

He addressed ongoing debates he has had with other Christians about issues like poverty, contending that Democrats aren't the only ones who care about the impoverished. 

"That's not true. And if you look at these cities they are being destroyed, all of their policies aren't working. The most devastated cities in America are Democrat cities because their policies don't work. It's mind-boggling," he asserted.

The pastor responded to black Christians who say because they are black, they are "with her," referring to Harris.

"It's the same thing that gay Christians do. You try to put an identity before your Christianity. A gay Christian? There's no such thing. There's no category. I'm a black Christian? I'm sorry, there's no such category. There's no such category as a white Christian," he added.

"I pastor a very multicultural church. Maybe one of the most diverse churches in DFW. And they're there for one reason. It's not because I'm a white pastor or we have African American worship leaders. It's not because we even try to be diverse. It's because we built a church around the presence of God. Likeminded people who love God's word and love his spirit."

Schott is far from the first pastor to make similar claims that Christians can't vote for Democrats. 

A church-state watchdog group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service in 2022 over a sermon that controversial Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke preached suggesting Christians shouldn't vote for a Democrat. 

"Though Locke stated he was not a 'full-fledged Republican,' he clearly told his congregants to vote against the Democrats, from the pulpit of his church," reads the letter written by Ian Smith, an attorney with Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Pastor Alton R. Williams of World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church in Memphis made pointed comments during a recent sermon, saying that he couldn't vote for a party that is "for all kinds of sexual perversions."

"I can't vote for a party that is going to accept transgenders going into women's restrooms," he added. "I can't do it. I can't go with a party that wants to cut little girls' breasts off to make them boys. I can't go with a party that says you can be a boy today and a girl tomorrow. ... I can't support a party that wants to remove God from its party platform. You in trouble when a nation forgets God."