Stand with Che Ahn

Just a few years ago, I stood in the pulpit of an empty sanctuary, preaching to a camera while Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration threatened pastors and fined churches simply for gathering in worship. In 2020, the state of California dispatched law enforcement not to quell crime but to shutter churches, silence Christian voices, and stifle the essential ministries that feed the hungry, heal the broken, and bind the wounds of our communities.

True California Leadership is Lacking

Today, the same governor refuses to speak with such clarity or conviction as lawless mobs roam the streets of Los Angeles. The selective application of justice has become glaring. When peaceful believers gathered in prayer during a pandemic, we were called threats. When rioters loot businesses and burn the city, they are met with tolerance or outright encouragement.

An Immigrant’s Perspective

As an immigrant born in South Korea to Korean parents, I know what it means to come to this nation in search of freedom and opportunity. My parents did it the right way—legally, patiently, and with a profound respect for the rule of law. That reverence for order is not merely civic, but biblical. Romans 13 is clear: government is instituted by God to uphold justice and restrain evil. When a government inverts that mandate—punishing the righteous while protecting the lawless—it abdicates its moral authority.

Law & Order is Necessary For Society to Function

God commands us to treat the sojourner with compassion and dignity. But there is a clear difference between a lawful immigrant seeking refuge and an invader who despises our laws and engages in criminal violence. Exodus 12:49 declares, “The same law shall apply to the native and to the stranger who resides among you.” A just society needs order and equal justice before the law to function, and both of those require strong, consistent leadership.

Equal Justice Must Return

That leadership is obviously lacking here in California. Order has been replaced with riots. Justice has been displaced by partiality. Christians must model both compassion and conviction. We are to be salt and light—not passive participants in lawlessness, but bold witnesses who speak the truth in love. Law-abiding immigration honors God. Rioting and rebellion do not. And a government that fails to distinguish between the two fails the people it was meant to serve.

Ché Ahn For California Governor

California stands at a crossroads. Will we be a state where biblical values and lawful order are respected—or a state where the rule of law collapses under political expediency? The leaders that we choose in 2026 will embody that choice.