By james art Sunday, October 20, 2024 | 10:41 am
LIVONIA, Mich. – Standing in front of hundreds of people in a suburban Detroit chapel at an event organized by Donald Trump’s campaign, Marlin J. Reed said God called them to vote for the former president.
“You’re being called to stand up and face this darkness and face these lies and refuse to stop talking, but to speak up and stand up and say we’re not going to take this,” said Reed, the pastor of New Wine Glory Ministries in Livonia, Michigan “We will not lie down, we will not allow you to take our country and our rights and freedoms.”
“Even if it means war, we won’t let you take it,” Reid said to cheers.
Trump’s campaign directly fueled a fusion of hard-right politics and theology to energize evangelicals in swing states. The campaign launched a “Believers for Trump” program and held several conversations with conservative religious leaders, mostly evangelical pastors, about how to mobilize their congregations for Trump. The Republican candidate is planning an event Monday near Charlotte, North Carolina, with allied pastors.
The Believers for Trump initiative involves reaching out to black voters, a traditionally Democratic constituency with which Trump has sought to increase his support. The Oct. 5 stop in Michigan featured black speakers such as Ben Carson, a longtime Trump surrogate who served as his housing secretary. Carson urged evangelicals not to shy away from what he called “corrupt” land politics.
“Unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot, you’re always choosing between the lesser of two evils,” Carson said to applause. “That’s why God gave you a brain.”
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who spoke at the Republican National Convention and whose church in Detroit hosted a black conservative roundtable with Trump this summer, rallied the crowd and declared that the United States must remain a Christian country.
Democrats also stepped up outreach to churchgoers
Churches in African-American communities have long conducted “Souls to the Ballot” efforts to mobilize black voters. Black pastors have a tradition of speaking on political issues with a moral and spiritual perspective. Similarly, conservative evangelical pastors have often openly discussed opposition to abortion in the past, but have refrained from officially endorsing GOP candidates.
Democrats also increased outreach to church voters.
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee hosted a call to launch its Souls to the Ballots effort with civil rights activist Martin Luther King III endorsing Harris and calling Trump a “disaster for Black America.” The campaign launched its own “Souls to the Polls” program and created a faith advisory board of progressive religious leaders that includes Harris’ pastor, Amos S. Brown, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Harris has visited black churches this month, including New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday morning.
Faith voter engagement in the 2024 election underscores the unprecedented blending of partisan politics with Christianity at a time when attendance at many churches is declining and when issues such as the coronavirus pandemic and liberalizing cultural norms dominate the debate in many congregations.
At the end of his event with Carson Reid, he boasted that the gathering had already sparked some backlash online for bringing politics into a religious space.
“I get attacked on Facebook. “A few people are telling me I’m going to jail and I’m breaking the law, and there can’t be politics in the church,” he said.
He noted that he did not register his church as a non-profit organization, which must remain officially non-partisan, specifically so that he can speak his mind.
“I knew this day was coming a long time ago. We are a different kind of charter,” he said.
Trump and conservative Christians embraced
A former New York playboy who was once viewed with deep skepticism by evangelical Christian leaders, Trump is now hailed as a champion of religious freedom by the Christian right. GOP events are filled with Christian iconography, and many Trump supporters say he has been divinely blessed, especially after he survived an assassination attempt at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One man at Trump’s October rally in Butler carried a large wooden cross.
Trump often posts Christian prayers and images. He has licensed a God Bless the USA Bible — made in China and sold for $59.99 — that includes copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance along with the text of the King James Version and the texts of his campaign exit song, “God Bless the USA.”
The campaign program for Christians includes the “Believers and Newsletters” program. It aims to boost mail-in and in-person early voting by training “church captains” who will coordinate their respective congregations on behalf of the campaign, according to an overview of the program. This review includes a disclaimer that cautions churches to consult legal counsel regarding how congregations may participate in the program.
Groups linked to Trump, including Turning Point USA and the America First Policy Institute, have outlined plans to mobilize conservative Christian voters in the election around cultural issues such as abortion, LGBTQ rights and public education curricula.
“How many times do we have to emphasize that there are civilization-defining questions about this? If we lose, it will be largely because pastors and Christians arrogantly tell God, “We don’t care. We are more religious than Donald Trump. I hope they enjoy the gulags,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.
Trump’s campaign had missteps
The campaign had missteps in reaching out to believing voters.
Trump posted an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on September 8, when Catholics celebrate the Nativity of the Virgin, removing the shade from both figures. While his campaign was eager to highlight black pastors who support Trump, the campaign also incorrectly listed a black pastor from Detroit as a supporter in its promotional materials. This pastor is an ardent supporter of Harris.
In July, Trump faced backlash for telling an audience of conservative Christians that they “won’t have to vote again” after the November election. “Christians, get out and vote. Just this once,” Trump said. “You won’t have to do that again. Four more years. you know what, it’ll be fine. it will be all right. You won’t have to vote anymore, my lovely Christians.”
Evangelical leaders in Trump’s orbit are increasingly using the rhetoric that he is “anointed” to wage “spiritual warfare” against Democrats.
White evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Trump this year, according to a Pew Research Center poll. White Catholic voters also overwhelmingly support the former president’s re-election bid. But Trump lags significantly in support among other religious communities, including mainline Protestant Christians, Latino Catholics, black Protestant voters, Jewish and Muslim Americans, and atheist or agnostic voters, according to Pew.
Not all evangelicals are turning to Trump. Some religious leaders have launched an Evangelicals for Harris campaign aimed at their fellow evangelicals to reach out to her.
The Livonian event contains scant biblical references. Carson, in his remarks, argued that immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally are violent criminals deliberately sent by foreign countries to the border “where stupid people will take care of them.”
“Frankly, we’re seeing the opposite on the other side,” Albert Muganem, a Livonia realtor who came to support Carson. “We see evil, we see demons.”