8 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

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David French has been a never-Trump from the beginning and he hasn’t wavered. Yesterday at The New York Times he offered four lessons he has learned during his nine years of never-Trumpism. They are:

  1. “Community is more powerful than ideology
  2. “We don’t know our true values until they’re tested
  3. “Hatred is the prime motivating force in our politics
  4. “Trust is tribal.”

See how French unpacks these points here.

Back in 2018, I argued that evangelicals turned to Donald Trump because:

  1. They privileged a politics of fear over a politics of hope
  2. They privileged a politics of power over a politics of humility
  3. They privileged a politics of nostalgia over a politics informed by history

A lot of Trump books appeared in the months and years after Believe Me was published. Not many people read my book anymore and a lot of political history has passed since 2018. But I still stand by my argument in Believe Me.

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Everett Piper is the former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University. He is now a right-wing pundit. Like many conservative evangelicals whom we have covered in these roundups, Piper is very worried about the recent George Barna poll indicating that millions of Christians will not vote in November. He wants evangelicals to vote and he wants them to do it “for the children.” A taste:

Jesus made his position on such things quite clear: “It would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into the sea than to cause one of these little ones [harm].”

It appears that Christians who stay home on Nov. 5 and do nothing about the evil being done to these “little ones” will have some explaining to do.

I don’t know about you, but as an obedient follower of Christ, I plan to vote.

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MAGA worship leader Sean Feucht was in Washington D.C. yesterday for a Christian nationalist rally. The event included shofars, “Appeal to Heaven” flags, and messages from Josh Hawley and Donald Trump. Kate Burns was there, reporting for the Bucks County Beacon. Here was Trump’s recorded message:

I’d like to congratulate Sean Feucht and Let Us Worship on the incredible job you’ve done. Religious liberty is under siege, but we are fighting back like never before. Today you are all joined in prayer on the National Mall, which is so important. I want to tell you that what you’re doing will never be forgotten. God will never forget it, and we will never forget it, because what you are doing is the most important thing. We have to protect our religious liberty and we have to pray. So to Let Us Worship: thank you very much, keep up the incredible job. You go from city to city — it’s an incredible thing you do. Thank you all very much, and have a great day.

Here is Josh Hawley:

It’s a privilege to go to work in that building behind me and see the statues of the men and women who have made our country great, but you and I both know what makes this country truly great, it’s the spiritual foundations of this nation, it’s the truth of the bible of which this nation was founded, do you agree with that tonight?

Don’t we live in a time where those in power are saying to us, give us the inheritance of ours fathers, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in public, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in politics, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in our schools, but we will say to them, forbid it from us to give you the inheritance of our fathers. We will rebuild the spiritual foundations of America. What this nation needs above all is Revival and don’t you know that this nation was founded on revival, that’s what made us a nation when those first pilgrims came to these shores, what did they bring here? The truth of the bible! What’s our liberty founded in? The scripture! What are our rights founded on? What Jesus has given us!…

Was this nation founded on revival, as Hawley suggests? I tackled this issue here. Was the United States founded on Jesus? I tried to tackle that question here.

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Let’s see what’s happening on X:

Fox News has made celebrities out of two anti-abortion University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students who disrupted a Kamala Harris rally last week. One of them was assaulted by a women “in her 70s or 80s. Even Laura Ingraham is not buying that:

Lance and Bill Mitchell. These guys occupy a different moral universe than I do:

I guess Lance didn’t make the “Team America” cut:

Lance is glad he is not “conspiracy minded.”

Here is an extended tweet from Lance. Notice the conflation of “E Pluribus Unum” and “Soli Dei Gloria” at the end:

This is the hour and this is the day. Join us in unity of prayer and purpose in fasting and seeking the Lord for our nation.

We have begun fasting now until the election.

The blessings of liberty in our beloved constitutional republic also carry the burden of defending truth from tyranny.

This is the hour that will reveal the condition of our individual and collective souls. This is the hour that requires an understanding of spiritual warfare and a sacrificial devotion to purposes greater than ourselves.

Once again, our nation faces an election decision of epic significance, through a voting process that in itself needs our prayers. Fasting, prayer, and the embrace of national humility has been part of our national character since our earliest days when the Colonial Virginia Assembly called for fasting and prayer after the British embargo of Boston in 1774 and these solemn calls and declarations have been issued in times of crisis ever since.

Will you join us? This is the hour.

Gathering with others in your family, your neighborhood, your ekklesia, your local church expression, and larger community to pray daily and seek the Lord for the healing, preservation, and restoration of all that is desirable in righteousness and purity in our nation —that we may fulfill God’s purposes for us as a people.

E Pluribus Unum. Soli Deo Gloria!!

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the guy who regularly shills for Trump, accuses Jake Tapper of unprofessionalism:

Brody does not appear to be a Beyonce fan:

Did they pray for the nation or a particular candidate? I didn’t watch this, but I am curious about how much they prayed for the Democratic ticket or any other ticket other than the GOP ticket.

Tim Barton tried to get people to vote and this happened.

Like Tim Barton, Jack Hibbs is also freaking-out about the potential of Christians not voting:

Tony Perkins quotes that esteemed American historian and constitutional scholar, General William Boykin:

According to Tony, “The choice is ours”:

Greg Laurie is also worried about that Barna poll:

Trump “put everything on the line” for Brooke Rollins and Jack Graham:

Albert Mohler on “greenhouse gases” and “aborted babies.” It is interesting to see Mohler in conversation with a woman.

Here is Shane Claiborne’s extended tweet about love:

In the Bible, there’s a verse that says: “Perfect love casts out fear.”

Fear and love are like opposing magnets, pushing against each other. And right now in America, we have to choose between fear and love, on Election Day… and every day.

What would America look like if love rather than fear was the motivating force shaping our policies — on immigration, guns, healthcare, criminal justice, war, poverty, and everything else?

So get ready. From Nov. 1-4 we will be hosting the “Vote For Love” campaign each night leading up to the election. And we’ve got some amazing folks lined up to share.

Loving our neighbors means that we cannot ignore the policies that affect their lives. Each night we’ll ask the question what does it look like to Vote For Love?

Love for victims of violence. Love for immigrants and refugees. Love for our poor and unhoused neighbors. Love for the marginalized and vulnerable. Love for all those Jesus called “the least of these.” That’s who we’re voting for.

Ed Stetzer encourages evangelicals to vote:

Southern Baptist pastor Tom Buck goes full Hitler:

And on the other hand, Buck takes a shot at Trump evangelicals:

All fair points:

More from the Sean Feucht MAGA worship rally: