In addition to being a longtime Religious Right activist and right-wing radio host, E.W. Jackson, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine in November, is a pastor of The Called Church in Chesapeake. Today he released a campaign video that he filmed inside his church, saying that it is a sin for Christians not to vote and repeatedly urging them to support him in the June 12 Republican primary so that he can deliver "a victory for the people of God."
Standing in front of his pulpit, Jackson kicked off the video by noting that as a pastor, he is keenly aware that the rights of Christians are under attack from "people that want to punish us for holding fast to biblical values."
"I'm going to stand against them," he pledged, "but there is only one way I am going to succeed in this: I need your help. Every Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, Bible-preaching church in Virginia, every Bible-believing Christian in Virginia, every pastor who stands on the word of God, I need your help."
Warning that Christians are being punished, persecuted, and imprisoned "simply for trying to be faithful to God," Jackson vowed "to stand against it with every fiber of my being" but added that he cannot do so without the support of Christian voters.
"Please, go out and vote on June 12," Jackson said. "My name is the third on the ballot ... Remember, you are voting for a Christian. I know and love the Lord. You're voting for a pastor and a churchman."
Jackson went on to assert that not to vote is "a sin against God," insisting that Christians must "vote your Christian values" by supporting him.
"If you do this, we will never have to be concerned about the kind of leadership we get in Virginia," he said. "Because when Christians rise up and get involved and get informed and go out to the polls and vote your Christian conscience ... Vote your biblical values and we will make sure that the commonwealth of Virginia remains a place that we can be proud of and that God will be pleased with."
