Winter Springs City Commission candidate Kyle Stewart: ‘I’m not a Christian nationalist’ 

Winter 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. 

Stewart appeared as a guest on the show “Reformgelical” back in June of 2021. Matt Williams, one of the show’s hosts attended Stewart’s 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. 

“I think that non-Christians, of course, could live in the United States,” Robles said. “But they wouldn’t have the same, they should not have the same privileges for running (for) offices or leading states and stuff like that that Christians should.”

As Robles is speaking, Stewart nods his head. 

“So I don’t believe in like freedom of expression of your religion,” the host continued. “I don’t think that we should be voting for Muslims for Congress, and stuff like that.”

“Amen,” Stewart replied. 

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.

“I’m not a Christian nationalist. I believe in upholding the Constitution as it is currently written,” Stewart said. “Wholeheartedly, I don’t believe that there should be a religious test for holding public office.”

As far as the “amen,” Stewart said it’s 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 “firebrand” baptist churches. He said for Baptists, it’s a kind of “intramural joke” when presbyterians use “amen.” 

He said he didn’t mean “amen” as in “preach on.”

“The tone of that conversation was informal; (it) wasn’t a worship service, we weren’t talking about the bible,” Stewart said. “But I was talking to a couple of Baptist firebrands who were starting to wrestle with some big ideas but didn’t yet have the ability to articulate them in a helpful way.”

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. 

“Christian Nationalist, Christian Supremacist, black-pill refuser, New Englander, Christ is King,” the bio reads. That account was created after Stewart did the interview.

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. 

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 “inclusive and less divisive.”

“When his term’s up, I would tell the commissioners to consider appointing someone more inclusive of the community and less divisive,” Bear said. “I don’t know anything else about (Stewart), I don’t have anything against him. It’s a single-issue incident.”

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.

“I’ll let the voters make their decision on that one,” Resnick said. 

Hour-long conversation also delves into LGBT issues

The “Reformgelical” podcast’s 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. 

The conversation focused around the Reformation, when Protestants split from the Catholic Church. Stewart said there were abuses in the church, which led to the idea that the church should be separated from the government. 

“So a lot of our forefathers coming out of the reformation said the way you fix that is you separate out church and state,” Stewart said. “If you separate out church and state, and you’ve got unbelievers ruling the state, what do you think is gonna happen, right? You think they’re all of a sudden gonna think that those people that are preaching the gospel that are condemning them, they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, you know what, we really don’t like this. We like our sex and drugs and rock and roll, but we’ll rule according to God’s standard, because we just know that that’s best.’ That’s not the way it works.”

A few minutes later, Robles began making the comments about non-Christians running for office. You can watch the full exchange below.

At another point in the podcast, the host referred to himself as a “squishy” reformist. 

“You’re just reformed,” Stewart said. “There’s not this squishy, like – can you be a gay Christian? You can’t be a squishy reformed. You’re either reformed or you’re not,  Matt.” 

“Did my pastor just call me gay?” Williams responded with a laugh. 

“No, but I’m saying – there’s not adjectives in front of Christianity,” Stewart said. 

When asked by OCN about that exchange, Stewart said what he meant was that people too often fracture and label themselves. 

“They’re not gay Christians, they’re not Republican Christians, they’re not Democratic Christians – we’re just Christians,” Stewart said. “Especially in Christianity, the emphasis is on the unity of the body of people that believe in Jesus. That was my emphasis there.”

Stewart said that at a broader level, Americans need to find common ground. 

“As Americans, we have to recognize the things that make us Americans, and we need to hold those things in a death grip,” Stewart said. “We have to be focused on those things, because we’re losing those things. And it doesn’t matter what religion you’re a part of. It doesn’t matter what party you’re in. But we have to work together.”

Stewart said  he has never held Christian nationalist views. Some have also questioned whether Stewart can represent residents who have differing – or no – religious views. 

“I think the assumption there is that I held to that view, and I don’t hold to the view that only Christians should hold office,” Stewart said. “That idea has been put in my mouth, and it’s not what I believe. I believe in upholding the Constitution. There are no religious tests for office, and that goes both ways.”

Stewart said he would protect those rights for every citizen. 

“That’s what the Constitution says, and I am absolutely committed to upholding that and to representing all the people of Winter Springs,” Stewart said. “I’ve got a wonderful Jewish lady who lives … 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. … And as an elected official, I’m absolutely committed to ensuring their rights.” 

Winter Springs attorney Bear said  the video from 2021 still stands – regardless of what Stewart might say today. 

“To me it was clear that five years ago, before he was a candidate, he was agreeing with these horrible ideas,” Bear said. “Was he being truthful then, or truthful now as a candidate? I think it’s more likely he was truthful then. … I doubt he’s being genuine now.”

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Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.