This week I helped Newsweek writer Khaleda Rahman with a piece on “Evangelicals for Harris.” Here is my contribution:
Others were more skeptical that the group could sway enough evangelical voters toward Harris.
“Frankly, I don’t think Evangelicals for Harris is going to have much an effect on the 2024 presidential election,” John Fea, a professor of history at Messiah University in Pennsylvania and author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, told Newsweek.
The group “will pull very few white evangelical voters away from Trump,” Fea said. “Franklin Graham has very little sway over white evangelicals who will vote for Harris in November. He lost their trust and confidence, if he ever had it, in 2016 and 2020.”
What could make a difference, Fea said, is if the Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, give white evangelicals a reason to vote for them.
“A lot of white evangelicals are disgusted by Trump and looking for any reason not to vote for him,” Fea said, adding that Harris and Walz have not given them one.
Here is a related story. Franklin Graham is threatening to sue Evangelicals for Harris for using his father, Billy Graham, in a campaign video.
***
Evangelical climate change activists are heading to evangelical Christian colleges this month to get students to consider the environment when they go to the ballot box in November. According to NBC News, they will visit Indiana Wesleyan University and Olivet Nazarene University, among others. My advice to the group: Go to Christian colleges in swing states: Pennsylvania (Messiah University, Grove City College, Eastern University), North Carolina (Montreat College, Campbell University, Mid-Atlantic Christian University, Gardner Webb University), Georgia (Toccoa Falls College, Covenant College), Michigan (Calvin University, Spring Arbor University, Hope College, Cornerstone University).
***
MAGA prophet Lance Wallnau recently got the attention of 60 Minutes. He also got national attention when he invited JD Vance to Pennsylvania for a rally. Now The Wall Street Journal is taking notice. Check out Kris Maher’s piece, “The Evangelicals Calling for ‘Spiritual Warfare’ to Elect Trump.”
***
As we get closer to the election, evangelicals remain concerned about Trump’s view on abortion. Last week, Trump said he would veto a federal ban on abortion. A story at The Hill quotes an evangelical pastor in Iowa: âThey just donât fully understand the depth of meaning that the abortion issue has to evangelicals and what that could translate into…” Robert Jeffress has suddenly become a federalist: “President Trump has remained amazingly consistent on his viewpoint that it ought to be left up to the states to decide their own abortion policy.”
***
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council believes that the Republican Party is abandoning its pro-life convictions. In a piece at The American Spectator, Perkins writes: “There are some values and principles that transcend short-term political calculations.
***
Here is what’s happening on X:
Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center is worried that evangelicals are not going to vote. Translation: Evangelical Christians need to get out on November 5th and vote for Trump:
Ralph Reed is doing what Ralph Reed does the month before an election:
When appropriate, the Faith & Freedom Coalition will defend Catholics:
So will Robert Jeffress. I wonder if Jeffress would defend other “cult-like pagan” religions.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition:
“If he asks me”:
Somewhere between 60,000 to 200,000:
BLM witches and covens:
Translation: Vote for Trump:
Drawn and quartered:
Trump and Kemp are trying to make nice. And then there is Eric Metaxas:
If you don’t vote you need to repent:
Metaxas has a way with words:
Eight years later, the Trump-Christian Right alliance is still strong:
Everything is on the line:
Just when I thought Greg Laurie was pulling away from MAGA politics, he shows up in Coachella to bless a Trump rally:
It’s unconscionable (translation: vote for Trump):
Translation: Vote for Trump:
Jim Wallis counters spiritual warfare language in politics with spiritual warfare language:
Elmer Fudd with a shotgun?
Thoughts from Justin Giboney:
Christianity Today Inc. podcaster Mike Cosper: