Pastor Hibbs Sounds the Alarm. Christians Should Hear the Wake-Up Call, Not a License to Condemn
Opinion Piece
Recently, Jim Hoft at the Gateway Pundit reported on Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, who didn't mince words in a recent sermon after the Nov. 3 midterms. Standing in front of a screen that read "255 MUSLIM ELECTED OFFICIALS," he told his congregation that the people who stayed home had made a choice too.
"Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who didn't vote, you voted," Hibbs said in his sermon. "We have surrendered. It's their party now."
You don't have to accept every word of that sermon to take its central point seriously. One faith community has organized, recruited candidates, and turned out its voters. Millions of American Christians apparently decided they had better things to do.
The number is real
Hibbs didn't pull "255" out of thin air. It comes straight from the Council on American-Islamic Relations' 2026 directory, which counted 255 Muslim elected officials and judges in 26 states before the midterms.
Then came Election Day. CAIR [reported at least 97 Muslim candidates winning or keeping office](https://www.cair.com/press_releases/breaking-cair-cair-action-report-record-97-muslims-and-counting-elected-nationwide/) across 21 states, calling it a record, with races still being counted. Many were reelections, so the two numbers shouldn't be added together. Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
And look where the 255 serve: 98 on city and county councils, 63 in education, 46 in state legislatures, 18 as judges. That's not where national headlines get made. It's where the decisions that shape your kids' classrooms and your neighborhood get made.
That's the part Hoft and Hibbs are right to underline. This happened because people did the slow work of local politics, the same work many conservative Christians have walked away from.
Why the concern deserves a hearing
Hibbs went further than the numbers. He said Islam forbids Muslims from truly swearing allegiance to the Constitution and that they answer to Sharia, "a completely different government."
That's a sweeping claim, and it can't be proven about 255 different people. There are several predominantly Muslim countries that have constitutional governments and Western-style judicial systems (Turkey, Indonesia, and several others). But behind Hibbs statement is a question many Americans are asking out loud: will the officials they elect put the Constitution, equal rights, and free speech ahead of any religious legal code? That's a fair question to ask any candidate of any faith that wants to legislate their beliefs.
The answer has to come from the record of each official, not from a sermon slide.
The line we shouldn't cross
This is where Shasta Unfiltered parts company with the angriest corners of the internet.
The Muslim family running a business on Cypress Avenue didn't attack anyone on Sept. 11. Neither did the Muslim doctor treating patients at a North State hospital, nor the student sitting next to your kid at Shasta College. Condemning millions of Americans for a faith they share with terrorists is the same logic critics use to blame every Christian for the worst thing ever done in Christ's name. We'd reject that about ourselves. We should reject it about our neighbors.
The Constitution settles the legal question too. Article VI says "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office." Muslim officeholders take the same oath as everyone else, and voters have every right to hold them to it.
So judge them the way we should judge everyone in office: on their words and their deeds. What do they say about free speech and religious liberty, including for Christians? How do they vote on parental rights, on schools, on public safety? Do they keep their oath? If one breaks it, name that official and show the evidence. Hold that standard, and hold it evenly.
The real lesson for the North State
There's no evidence of a Muslim political wave in Shasta County, and we won't pretend there is. The lesson for us is closer to home.
Every school board and council seat here goes to whoever shows up, recruits good candidates, and does the work. If Christians in Redding are worried about the direction of the country, the answer isn't to resent other people for organizing. It's to start organizing.
Hibbs is right that staying home is a vote. The question is whether Shasta County's churches will hear his warning as a call to show up and do the work, or just as one more reason to be afraid.
