5 days until Election Day: What are evangelicals saying?

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Chad Harvey is a Trump-supporting Pentecostal pastor in North Carolina. Scott Detrow of National Public Radio recently interviewed him about his political convictions. Here is a small taste:

Detrow: Let me just ask the direct question about this with Trump. Donald Trump has such a high support from so many Christians around the country, and yet is somebody who lives in a gold tower with his name on it, who crudely insults people and, among other things, is facing criminal charges. And some people just feel like this is not the message, as I understand it, of Christianity, but there’s such a strong support. What’s the best way you explain it to someone who says, I just don’t understand that?

Harvey: So I would say, again, I keep going back to we’re all messed up people. Trump is messed up. Kamala Harris is messed up. Joe Biden has had accusations thrown at him. We’re all messed-up individuals. And so I think what I keep coming back to is a lot of people seem to think that we’re having a continuous, 24/7 Trump rally in the Evangelical Pentecostal circle. We’re actually not. We’re well aware of his foibles. We’re well aware of where he’s messed up. I think the reason Trump is resonating with Evangelicals is this mess aside that we all know about, the platform he’s supporting, like it or not, is closer aligned to our view of scripture than the other side.

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Hispanic evangelicals are getting a lot of attention this week. Here is Deepa Bharath at the Associated Press:

Latinos are the fastest-growing group of American evangelicals. According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 15% of Latinos identify as evangelical Protestants. They are an influential voting bloc, particularly in swing states. Both major parties are vying for their votes this election year when margins in the presidential election are expected to be thin. However, Latino Christian faith leaders say their communities don’t feel like they belong in either party. They say community members are torn between their conservative views on social issues such as abortion and their desire to see immigration reform and criminal justice reform.

The Rev. Arturo Laguna leads a largely immigrant church of about 100 followers in Phoenix. His job as a pastor, he says, gets complicated come election season.

Michigan State’s NPR channel has a piece here.

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Again, many conservative evangelicals are nervous that their fellow believers are not going to vote on Tuesday. Joel Rosenberg, a Christian Zionist, believes that not voting is “surrendering amid a ferocious spiritual battle for the future of America.” Translation: Vote for Trump.

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Over at Christianity Today, writer Domonic D. Purviance has some thoughts on American democracy:

Democracy is a comparatively good system, but it is merely a human system. It can only function justly to the degree that the people within it have aligned their hearts, motives, and interests with truth and righteousness. Otherwise, the depravity of human nature will bend even a perfectly functioning democracy toward injustice. Government “by the people” will always reflect the heart of the people in question. It was a government “by the people” that resulted in the crucifixion of “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). 

The value Americans tend to place on politics and the democratic process makes it difficult to remember this inherent limitation. But as Christians, we must. 

Though we have the civic privilege and responsibility to vote, we cannot put all our hopes on this or any election. Politics is not the only—or even primary—way to solve critical issues of our day. Remember, early Christians changed the entire Greco-Roman world with no political power.

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Theobro Owen Strachan sees no moral equivalence between the candidates. Strachan has never been one for nuance. Here is a taste of his recent piece at a Family Research Council publication:

You could not get a starker contrast of worldviews. At a recent Kamala Harris presidential rally, someone shouted out “Jesus is Lord!” and Vice President Harris snapped back: “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.” Harris’s hearers boisterously applauded her dismissive retort.

Measure that against the quick reply of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance at a different event. Just days after Harris’s put-down, someone shouted “Christ is king!” while Vance spoke, and he calmly but boldly said, “That’s right, Jesus is King.” The crowd went wild.

In the span of a few hours, Harris and Vance showed us how Christianity is received by the two major parties in America today. In one rally, Christianity is not welcome; in the other, Christianity is affirmed (albeit quickly). Rarely have we gotten a clearer demonstration of the divide in American politics and American culture than this.

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Let’s see what is happening on X:

Sean Feucht is a political pundit:

Tom Buck tries to get Trump off the hook:

“Vote biblically” (Translation: :Vote for Trump):

Franklin is a fan of the guy who played Chuck on the old NBC show by the same name:

Prosperity preacher Paula White continues to gush over Trump:

It’s pretty simple for Tony. It all comes down to abortion:

Whataboutism:

NOT LOUIS FARRAKHAN!

Wait, Eric Metaxas is talking about the Nazis? That’s new. ;-):

Eric is fasting and praying:

Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, like other MAGA evangelicals, is getting a lot of mileage out of this:

Is this Lance Wallnau acting in his capacity as a prophet or as a political pundit?:

The Faith & Freedom Coalition wants answers:

By God’s grace:

Thanks to Emma Bell for her assistance with this roundup

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