Reading the Bible Across America: Faith, Politics, and the 250th Moment with Bunni Pounds

We’re joined by Bunni Pounds, founder and president of Christians Engaged, a nonprofit focused on helping Christians pray, vote, and engage in civic life. She brings a background working in and around Congress, along with years of organizing at the intersection of faith and politics.

Bunni lays out why she thinks biblical literacy has dropped and why that matters, not just for the church but for how people show up in public life. Her view is that scripture has shaped the country in real ways, and going back to it can help people get grounded again.

What stood out about the event is how simple the approach is. No commentary, no preaching. Just reading the text and letting people wrestle with it on their own. It brings together a wide mix of Christian traditions, and the focus isn’t on agreement across doctrine. It’s on shared exposure to the same source material.

We also get into how this connects to politics. Bunni talks through how her organization encourages Christians to think about voting. The emphasis is on leadership, track record, and what candidates actually say they believe, since that tends to show up in how they govern.

I pushed on how something like this lands with people outside the faith, and what it means to represent Jesus in a public setting like this. That tension runs through the conversation. It’s about how faith shows up in public, who it’s for, and how people interpret it in a divided environment.

Relevant Links

America Reads the Bible

Christians Engaged

Great American Pure Flix (livestream platform mentioned)

Guest Bio

Bunni Pounds is the founder and president of Christians Engaged, a nonprofit organization that equips Christians to participate in civic life through prayer, voting, and community involvement. She spent over a decade working with members of Congress, gaining firsthand experience in how policy and leadership decisions are shaped. Today, her work focuses on connecting biblical understanding with civic responsibility, helping individuals engage political issues through the lens of faith. She is also the author of Stepping Up to Lead: Rebuilding a Nation in the Footsteps of Nehemiah, which explores leadership and national renewal from a biblical perspective.