“Engaging U.S. Politics 2024”: Bethel Church Event Promotes Voting, Campaign Giving

An American flag waves over Bethel Church’s campus. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

About 400 people filled Bethel’s Great Room at the church’s College View campus on Tuesday night, February 27, for an event focused on politics. 

“Bethel sent something out and basically told me to come and that’s why I’m here,” a woman told her friend as the event prepared to kick off.

The event invitation, which was also featured on Bethel’s website, encouraged church attendees to bring their family, friends, neighbors and voting guides. Some also brought their ballots, laying hands on them in prayer as they stood, swaying, in the dimly-lit room during an opening twenty minutes of worship.

The political forum gave Redding Mayor Tenessa Audette, who is also on Shasta County’s March 5 ballot as a candidate for California Assembly, a strong platform from which to share her stance on issues such as “parental notification” in schools, and abortion; topics which are of particular interest to many in the evangelical community. Audette is running for Megan Dahle’s seat in California’s First District against three opponents.

Bethel Church is a Redding-based, internationally-known megachurch that’s recognized by religious scholars as part of a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation which teaches “taking dominion” over all aspects of society. Because Bethel’s theology emphasizes that leaders are a source of insight from God, and that showing them honor is a conduit for receiving his favor, words spoken by Bethel leaders at the event carried particular weight.  

Audette, who has taught the God and Government class at Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry for the last six years, was one of two Bethel leaders who spoke. Redding Council member and Bethel elder Julie Winter was also on the panel, along with Denise Gitsham, a Republican political pundit for the TV show The Hill on News Nation and a Board member of The Rock, San Diego, a church with similar theology.

The evening offered a unique window into the megachurch’s approach to politics. As clearly prohibited by the Johnson Amendment, speakers did not specifically endorse candidates. Instead, Bethel gave a significant platform to a current candidate for office while encouraging attendees to make their own choice on who to support after “hearing from God.”

“We’re not going to be endorsing candidates tonight,” Winter said. 

“Except for me,” Audette added, in what appeared to be intended as a joke.

Panelists made several statements encouraging diversity of thought among Christians when it comes to politics. But leaders also focused much of their conversation on the idea of communication from God as a source of unifying vision for Christian political involvement.

Audette emphasized that politics aren’t “about us vs them,” but about “being on the right side . . . God’s side.” She told attendees that they could ask the Holy Spirit who to vote for, “Or just message me and I will give you my voter guide.”

Winter led the panel, briefly sharing her own story of how she decided to run for Redding City Council after being prophesied over by Bethel Senior Associate Leader Kris Vallotton in 2015. She focused several of her questions on why Christians should engage in the political sphere and on understanding the meaning of the term “separation of church and state.”

Although Audette said she appreciates the “foundational idea” of the separation of church and state, she also expressed concern about the way she thinks it’s often used by those outside the church for “bullying and intimidation” of Christians who seek to become politically active.

“Your rights come from God, not the government,” Audette said, emphasizing that she sees this idea as a unique aspect of how the American Constitution was written. She also encouraged the idea that Christians need to learn to “coalesce around their candidate” instead of focusing on their own individual vote. 

Audette became Redding’s Mayor in January, after a majority vote of three Bethel-connected Council members including herself, Winter and Jack Munns. Outgoing Redding Mayor Michael Dacquisto referred to the vote to promote Audette to Mayor and Winter to Vice Mayor as an example of what he sees as Bethel’s outsized influence in government calling it “the Bethel juggernaut at work.”

Asked by Winter to provide an example of how she’s bringing God’s influence to Redding through her role as a City Council member, Audette cited her work on the Shasta AT HOME Committee which is working to find responses to homelessness. Taking credit for coming up with the idea of a day resource center for the unhoused, Audette said after she had talked others on the committee into the idea, it was “miraculous” to find out that the City of Redding had also recently received funding for just such a purpose. A day resource center has been a city, county, and nonprofit service provider priority for many years, but access to funding and agreement on operations policies have long been barriers to creating one.

At one point in the evening, Winter acknowledged a common community perception that Bethel is trying to “take over Redding.” The idea is connected to one of the church’s teachings, known as the Seven Mountains Mandate, which encourages Christians to “infiltrate” all parts of society, including government, business and the media, to bring God’s ways of thinking to earth.

Winter said she’s collected data on who sits on the nonprofit and government boards across Redding, analyzed how many are filled by Bethel-connected individuals, and found that number lacking.

“There are about 345 seats where we could be influential,” Winter told the audience, “and we’re in 3% of those. We’re really not represented.”

She encouraged Bethel attendees to get more involved in politics by joining local boards, voting, and contributing finances to campaigns.

Audette, who mentioned that she’s currently collecting donations, also told attendees that “money is the lifeblood of political campaigns” and that giving to politics should be seen more like tithing, a religious tradition taught at Bethel which compels members to give 10% of their earnings to the church. 

“When it comes to politics, just give,” Audette said.

As the evening came to a close, panelists took several questions from audience members. One came from a young woman who said that what motivates many in the church to engage in politics is the idea that Americans might “lose God’s favor” if the wrong leaders rise to power. Her question reflects another common theology in the church, that God’s favor follows both righteous people and righteous nations.

“That’s why we (in the church) polarize (over politics),” the young woman said. “We don’t want to lose God’s favor.”

Disclosure: Annelise Pierce is a former member of Bethel Church.

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