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<\/p>\nWinter Springs City Commission candidate Kyle Stewart said he is not a Christian nationalist, after video resurfaced of him on a podcast seeming to agree with the host saying non-Christians should be barred from political office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stewart appeared as a guest on the show \u201cReformgelical\u201d back in June of 2021. Matt Williams, one of the show\u2019s hosts attended Stewart\u2019s church. In the video, A.D. Robles, the second host, said that Christians should be in charge of the government, and that America should be an explicitly Christian state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that non-Christians, of course, could live in the United States,\u201d Robles said. \u201cBut they wouldn\u2019t have the same, they should not have the same privileges for running (for) offices or leading states and stuff like that that Christians should.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Robles is speaking, Stewart nods his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I don\u2019t believe in like freedom of expression of your religion,\u201d the host continued. \u201cI don\u2019t think that we should be voting for Muslims for Congress, and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmen,\u201d Stewart replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview with Oviedo Community News, Stewart said he is not a Christian nationalist, and that he believes that everyone should be allowed to run for office, as per the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a Christian nationalist. I believe in upholding the Constitution as it is currently written,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWholeheartedly, I don\u2019t believe that there should be a religious test for holding public office.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As far as the \u201camen,\u201d Stewart said it\u2019s a signal that he was listening, not that he agreed with it. He said Presbyterians have a reputation of being academic, whereas Robles and Williams came from more \u201cfirebrand\u201d baptist churches. He said for Baptists, it\u2019s a kind of \u201cintramural joke\u201d when presbyterians use \u201camen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he didn\u2019t mean \u201camen\u201d as in \u201cpreach on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tone of that conversation was informal; (it) wasn\u2019t a worship service, we weren\u2019t talking about the bible,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cBut I was talking to a couple of Baptist firebrands who were starting to wrestle with some big ideas but didn\u2019t yet have the ability to articulate them in a helpful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oviedo Community News attempted to reach both Robles and Williams, giving them multiple days to respond, but did not hear back before press deadline. Robles cohosts calls himself a Christian nationalist in his X (formerly known as Twitter) bio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChristian Nationalist, Christian Supremacist, black-pill refuser, New Englander, Christ is King,\u201d the bio reads. That account was created after Stewart did the interview.<\/p>\n
Others have condemned the video. Stewart currently serves as a volunteer chaplain for the city of Winter Springs, and often leads the invocation at the start of meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Bear, a Winter Springs attorney, said Stewart should not be reappointed to serve as chaplain, and that they should find someone who is more \u201cinclusive and less divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen his term\u2019s up, I would tell the commissioners to consider appointing someone more inclusive of the community and less divisive,\u201d Bear said. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything else about (Stewart), I don\u2019t have anything against him. It\u2019s a single-issue incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart is challenging incumbent Winter Springs City Commissioner Cade Resnick in the 2026 general election. Resnick, who is finishing his third non-consecutive term in office, declined to comment on the video.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let the voters make their decision on that one,\u201d Resnick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hour-long conversation also delves into LGBT issues<\/p>\n
The \u201cReformgelical\u201d podcast\u2019s series was uploaded to YouTube from Oct. 11, 2019 to June 25, 2021. Stewart was on one of the later videos, posted June 10, 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conversation focused around the Reformation, when Protestants split from the Catholic Church.<\/a> Stewart said there were abuses in the church, which led to the idea that the church should be separated from the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo a lot of our forefathers coming out of the reformation said the way you fix that is you separate out church and state,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIf you separate out church and state, and you\u2019ve got unbelievers ruling the state, what do you think is gonna happen, right? You think they\u2019re all of a sudden gonna think that those people that are preaching the gospel that are condemning them, they\u2019re gonna be like, \u2018Oh, you know what, we really don\u2019t like this. We like our sex and drugs and rock and roll, but we\u2019ll rule according to God\u2019s standard, because we just know that that\u2019s best.\u2019 That\u2019s not the way it works.\u201d<\/p>\n A few minutes later, Robles began making the comments about non-Christians running for office. You can watch the full exchange below.<\/p>\n At another point in the podcast, the host referred to himself as a \u201csquishy\u201d reformist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re just reformed,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThere\u2019s not this squishy, like \u2013 can you be a gay Christian? You can\u2019t be a squishy reformed. You\u2019re either reformed or you\u2019re not,\u00a0 Matt.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDid my pastor just call me gay?\u201d Williams responded with a laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but I\u2019m saying \u2013 there\u2019s not adjectives in front of Christianity,\u201d Stewart said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked by OCN about that exchange, Stewart said what he meant was that people too often fracture and label themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not gay Christians, they\u2019re not Republican Christians, they\u2019re not Democratic Christians \u2013 we\u2019re just Christians,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cEspecially in Christianity, the emphasis is on the unity of the body of people that believe in Jesus. That was my emphasis there.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said that at a broader level, Americans need to find common ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs Americans, we have to recognize the things that make us Americans, and we need to hold those things in a death grip,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe have to be focused on those things, because we\u2019re losing those things. And it doesn\u2019t matter what religion you\u2019re a part of. It doesn\u2019t matter what party you\u2019re in. But we have to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said\u00a0 he has never held Christian nationalist views. Some have also questioned whether Stewart can represent residents who have differing \u2013 or no \u2013 religious views.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the assumption there is that I held to that view, and I don\u2019t hold to the view that only Christians should hold office,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThat idea has been put in my mouth, and it\u2019s not what I believe. I believe in upholding the Constitution. There are no religious tests for office, and that goes both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said he would protect those rights for every citizen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the Constitution says, and I am absolutely committed to upholding that and to representing all the people of Winter Springs,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a wonderful Jewish lady who lives \u2026 to the right of me, I have a wonderful Islamic family to the left of me, and we are great neighbors. It makes living in The Highlands a wonderful place to live. \u2026 And as an elected official, I\u2019m absolutely committed to ensuring their rights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Winter Springs attorney Bear said\u00a0 the video from 2021 still stands \u2013 regardless of what Stewart might say today.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo me it was clear that five years ago, before he was a candidate, he was agreeing with these horrible ideas,\u201d Bear said. \u201cWas he being truthful then, or truthful now as a candidate? I think it\u2019s more likely he was truthful then. \u2026 I doubt he\u2019s being genuine now.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to contact your elected leaders and weigh in on this topic? Find their contact information here<\/a>. Have a news tip or opinion to share with OCN? Do that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.<\/p>\n Support local news!<\/p>\n \n Monthly Most Popular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChoose\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Most Popular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChoose\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Most Popular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChoose\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Custom Amount<\/p>\n
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