“The white evangelical church is largely in mourning, grief and grave disappointment at the outcome of the midterm elections,” according to Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic.
But the Black evangelical church is “largely thrilled, elated, excited, thankful and feel as if the outcome of the election will result in major and desperately needed change for the good in America.”
Dwight McKissic
McKissic’s Nov. 5 tweet summarizes the racial differences found in current American politics. Exit polling shows white evangelicals remained the base of Republican support in the midterm elections, even though the national mood swung against Republicans.
“Our theological and spiritual belief systems are the same. Currently, our politics are so different,” McKissic said of the white church and the Black church.
This is due to different views of Donald Trump and “different backgrounds and racial experiences,” he explained.
The day after the midterm wipeout for Republicans, the most outspoken white evangelical leaders were either silent or muted in their responses. Robert Jeffress, the Trump-loving pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, said nothing.
Days before the elections, Jeffress told Politico: “My goal as a pastor is not to get people in the voting booth, but to keep them out of hell.” He said James Talarico “seems harmless, but the toxic faith he is preaching will lead people away from heaven, not toward it.”
Talarico, who won the election to become U.S. senator from Texas, has been and remains the most frequent target of criticism from white evangelical pastors. They see his progressive Christian theology as a direct threat to their own theology and politics.
Josh Howerton
Josh Howerton, pastor of Lakepointe Church in suburban Dallas, picked up this theme in his response to the midterms.
“The United States intentionally chose things like max-boosting infant murder up to the moment of birth, legislated sexual perversion that will wreak havoc on a rising generation, the expansion of Islamic influence on our nation, elected leaders openly hostile to Christianity, and in at least 2 cases (TX and Kansas) chose what the New Testament would define as (and I do not say this lightly or flippantly) demonic, apostate false teachers to lead them,” he wrote.
Willy Rice, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, doesn’t often make public statements on political issues but had a lot to say about the midterms.
Willy Rice
“Many conservative evangelicals are disappointed, even devastated, by the results of this week’s elections,” he said. “In multiple ways, moral positions on issues such as marriage, gender, abortion, and even socialism (a form of economic and political tyranny) were soundly defeated across our nation. For many this is a devastating turn, and the consequences are both real and ominous.”
Rice’s response ticked off the main talking points of today’s GOP and white evangelicals: Same-sex marriage, transgender identity, economic models. The one talking point he missed that Howerton extolled is fear of Muslims.
Inevitably, political conversations with white evangelicals always turn back to abortion. Such was the case with McKissic’s tweet; he was asked immediately about abortion.
“There is not a deep spiritual divide on abortion,” he replied. “If we had an opportunity to vote on abortion as a stand-alone item, the Black Church would vote 80% against it, if not 90%. Keep in mind the SBC voted in favor of abortion in the ’70s. So, abortion has not always been a battleground issue in politics or in church history. When it became an issue surrounding Roe v. Wade, and the Ronald Reagan era politics of the ’80s, that’s when it became a political football.
“Abortion is still legal some 45 years later after Republication politicians promised that if we’d vote for them, they’d enact a constitutional ban against abortion. They lied. Republicans have been completely in majority of all three branches of government four times since the early eighties and have never even attempted a full-throttled effort to legislate a federal constitution ban against abortion. They simply politicized the issue.
“So, the white evangelical church and the Black evangelical church are not theologically and spiritually divided over the issue of abortion. Politically we know when we’re being played. And we simply refuse to allow the Republicans to play us on this issue, as they continue to play the white evangelical church.”
“The white evangelical church and the Black evangelical church are not theologically and spiritually divided over the issue of abortion.”
The most common public response to the midterm elections from white evangelical leaders is a pledge to pray more and keep preaching.
Rice, the SBC president, said: “What will we do? What we always do. Our trust was never in political powers. Our joy does not come from political victories or social trends. We must be faithful in season and out of season, in victory and in defeat. The truth will not change and did not change on Tuesday.”
Franklin Graham, one of Trump’s chief evangelical apologists, wrote: “The midterms are now over, leaving some very concerned — while others are elated. We see our country inching closer toward socialism, which is historically an enemy of God and his word. However, today I am reminded that even though change is coming, as followers of Jesus Christ our job hasn’t changed! We are to live for him in obedience to his word, shine his light and truth in the ever-darkening world around us, and make disciples.”
Jack Graham, former SBC president and pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, said: “America took a sharp turn politically in the midterms as leftist ideologies prevailed but as always, we have complete confidence that God will renew the courage of his church. There is no panic. Jesus Won. Pray and believe.”
Howerton, a Calvinist, extolled the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of total depravity: “There is no political solution to a spiritual problem. Politics cannot fix what politics did not break, and mankind was broken long before any political system.”
“Christ is the only way out of the chaos,” he said.
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