What Christian nationalist pastors in Texas said after midterms

Since Election Day, journalists and political pundits across the country have opined on the fall of Christian nationalism in the state of Texas. One Texas Monthly headline went so far as to declare, “The Christian Nationalist Agenda is Dead.” They included the caveat “For Now.”

With the sweeping changes in the state’s governance, there could be a reprieve from legislative efforts to turn public schools into Sunday schools and encode a conservative expression of Christianity in all of public life, but, the ideology behind Christian nationalism is pervasive and any hope of defeating the movement will require continued engagement with its politics and theology.

I wanted to know what some of the well-known Christian nationalist pastors in Texas said from the pulpit the first Sunday after the election. So I went digging.

Their sermons ran the gamut. Some chose to all but ignore the election results. Some prophesied about the end of America or the resurgence of the movement. One eschewed a real sermon for what can only be described as a political diatribe. All had something to say about the progressive Christianity they are threatened by.

Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church
A Southern Baptist church in Rockwall, Texas

Josh Howerton, a rising star in the “Theo-Bro” movement who just landed a podcast deal with Blaze Media, didn’t preach on Nov. 8. Instead, the guest preacher, Mike Breaux, delivered the fourth sermon in the ongoing “Into the Breach” series. In it, Breaux talked about God having a plan for each of us and made no mention of the election.

Days later, Howerton was joined on his podcast by two of Lakepointe’s other pastors, Carlos Erazo and Paul Cunningham. Howerton bills his podcast as both a follow-up/deeper dive into the sermon each week and a conversation about culture. It’s most often used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories.

The trio had much to say about the election. This is the most notable assertion by Howerton:

What just happened is the United States of America, en masse, intentionally chose max boosting infant murder. By the way, the state of Virginia just legalized in the midterm election — I think the “right” is, how it was phrased — to abortion up to birth. Let me just pause and let that sink in. Like viable children like can legally be murdered in the state of Virginia now up until the moment they breach the birth canal. …

What our nation just did in some ways is, while they had been freaking out about “Christian nationalism,” they said yes to Islamic nationalism. I think what you just had is either eight or 11, I can’t remember which one, more Islamic leaders were elected into office. …

In two cases, the state of Texas and the state of Kansas — dude, I don’t say this lightly; I’m like, that’s not like trying to be a shock jock; these are biblical categories — two states intentionally elected demonic apostate false teachers in Adam Hamilton and James Talarrico. …

You’re seeing Romans 1 happening right now.

John Hagee of Cornerstone Church
A nondenominational megachurch in San Antonio, Texas

John Hagee founded Cornerstone Church in San Antonio in 1975. He does not hold a seminary degree.

Hagee, an unapologetic premillennial dispensationalist, believes in a pre-tribulation rapture and that we are, in fact, living in the End Times. He even offers dates that supposedly correspond to biblical prophecy. Hagee opened his sermon titled, “From Here to Eternity,” by saying, “America is in a dark place,” and then offered a prayer:

Our most gracious Heavenly Father, creator of heaven and earth, America has been shaken in the past few days by the open and public rejection of Israel. Israel the apple of God’s eye. Israel the chosen people, the covenant people. Israel the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants forever. Surely we are racing toward the end of time and the judgment of God. The prophetic word in the Bible is a light that shines in a dark place to reveal to all believers we are soon going to leave this world in the near future in the twinkling of an eye to an eternal home where we will live for eternity. Today, let us prepare for our eternal destiny from here to eternity recorded in the pages of Bible prophecy. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s children said, “Amen.”

Hagee’s sermon then went on to interpret certain biblical prophets as predicting automobiles and airplanes (Nahum 2:3-4 and Isaiah 31:5 respectively) before proclaiming that biblical prophetic time stopped with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and restarted in 1948 with the creation of the nation of Israel. Now, according to Hagee, we’re in the final days and should all be preparing for the rapture.

Landon Schott of Mercy Culture
A nondenominational megachurch in Waco and Fort Worth, Texas

Landon Schott, founder of Mercy Culture — a New Apostolic Reformation church — has no seminary training and received his “ordination” from disgraced megachurch pastor Robert Morris of nearby Gateway Church.

Following the election, Schott delivered an hour-long sermon titled, “Spirit of Python.” Schott began the sermon by recounting an encounter he said he had with the Spirit of Python (a demonic spirit associated with fortunetelling described in Acts 16:16-24) while in Washington, D.C., for the 2025 inauguration of Donald Trump as president:

And so that evening we went to a prayer room about a block away from the Supreme Court. And you could look out the top floor window, and you could see the Supreme Court. And I was there with Mercy Culture pastors and elders. Pastor Nate (Schatzline) was with us. Pastor Les (Cody) was with us and Pastor Jasmine (Weiler) and a few others. And we’re praying. And so I walked in, we prayed in the Holy Ghost for about 20 seconds. And I just said out loud, “Lord, do you want us to have a Mercy Culture in D.C.?” And I just asked it out loud. And the moment I asked out loud, I had a vision … and in this vision I see Jezebel and she’s in the form of a snake and she is slithering around the White House. And in this vision she slithers around twice and I see the hand of the Lord keeping her from the White House. Now I believe that both times around represented one of Hillary and one of Kamala. And I saw the hand of the Lord keeping her out. So Jezebel would not be allowed to go in the White House. So she went to the place that tolerated her, and that was the local church.

Schott’s sermon focused on the difference between prophesying (like the NAR and Schott say they practice) and soothsaying. At one point in the sermon, he directly addressed “those evangelicals who voted for James Talarico,” because, according to Schott, Talarico is practicing “soothsaying and witchcraft” and “believes that his children should be transgendered.”

He called progressive Christianity an apostasy. This stance is in keeping with Schott’s frequent assertions about Christians who don’t vote Republican. In the leadup to the 2024 election, he posted online “YOU ARE NOT A BIBLE BELIEVING, JESUS FOLLOWING CHRISTIAN IF YOU SUPPORT THE GODLESS ROMANS 1 EVIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!”

In his sermon, Schott touched on every major culture-war issue, tying them each to the Python Spirit and ended with a frenzied, music-backed screed calling for the congregation to cast off the Python Spirits holding them back.

Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas
An SBC church

Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas is one of the few Trump-supporting pastors with a seminary degree. He’s also been one of the president’s staunchest supporters, contorting himself all kinds of ways to defend indefensible behavior.

On Nov. 8, he delivered a sermon full of contradictions. It’s worth remembering that Jeffress appeared at the hastily arranged Midterm GOP Convention in Dallas on X and said:

There’s a difference between falling into sin and being an advocate for sin, an advocate for evil. And ladies and gentlemen, the Democrat Party are advocates for evil. …

James Talarico describes himself as quote a Christian who hates Christianity and perhaps he was telling the truth about that. No, let’s make no mistake about it. The beliefs of James Talarico are certainly wrong, but they’re more than wrong. The beliefs of James Talarico are blasphemous. They are evil and they are not beliefs that any true Christian could support ever. We must condemn the beliefs of James Talarico. … Ladies and gentlemen, God is never on the side of evil. And if we want God’s continued blessings on our United States of America, it is imperative that on November the 3rd, we vote for God’s side.

Given this, it was especially surprising that during his sermon on Nov. 8 — the first in a sermon-series on Jonah — he had this to say:

When we understand God’s compassion, the pity he has shown us in sheltering us from his judgment, we ought to exercise that same passion and compassion toward others.

You know, I’ve heard over the last months in this political season people saying vile things about other unbelievers or believers. You know, I truly think that some people would actually be disappointed if one of their political enemies became a Christian and was welcomed into heaven.

They want them to burn in hell. The thought of them being forgiven of their sins and coming to heaven is just something they can’t stomach. If that is you, you need to truly question whether or not you’re a Christian. A true Christian cannot have hatred for other believers or even for unbelievers. The compassion of God should motivate us to show compassion to others.

Jeffress, who has unabashedly supported the president’s cruel and violent deportation agenda, also hypocritically offered this message on compassion:

For we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. God has sent every one of us to be a missionary. Not to just people we like, but people we can’t stand, people we hate. You know, it’s understandable to be fearful of your enemies. I mean, just think about what happened in our own country, America, after 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Immediately, the Japanese even living here in our country, even citizens in our country, became objects of hatred by people.

People hated the Japanese for what they did to us. Fast forward to 1979. The fall of the American embassy in Iran made Americans hate Iranians and suspicious of them that only accelerated after the terrible assault on our country on 9-11 and it affected people’s feelings toward Muslims. But Christians are never to hate people. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation even to those we would naturally hate.

Brandon Burden of KingdomLife
A nondenominational church in Frisco, Texas

Brandon Burden’s title at KingdomLife — the church his parents planted — is lead prophet. The church is an NAR affiliate with deep ties to that Christian nationalist movement in North Texas and beyond.

Texans beyond Frisco became aware of him when, on the first day of the 89th Texas Legislative Session, he traveled to Austin with some from his church and held a prayer service. Praying over specific Republicans ahead of the House speaker fight, he claimed to cast out demons and protect his choice for speaker. Burden has no college or seminary experience and instead studied at the unaccredited and unregulated NAR school for spiritual warfare known as Spirit Life Bible College.

Burden didn’t preach on Nov. 8. Instead, in an hour-long sermon titled “The Prophetic Code of the Hebrew Calendar,” guest preacher Dwain Miller assuaged the fears of the congregation by utilizing numerology to predict what will happen in the future. Miller holds degrees, including a doctor of ministry from Louisiana Baptist University, but the most recent degree he claims is a Ph.D. from the unaccredited (and unregulated) online Life Christian University.

The gist of Miller’s sermon is that the Bible predicted the rise of President Trump, the downfall of Republicans in the 2026 primaries and the coming resurgence of right-minded Christians who will seize control of the country.

Listening to Miller’s sermon is like listening to a Burbon Street fortuneteller. He twists history in all sorts of convoluted ways to fit his self-understanding as a prophetic seer.

I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’m a man of God who votes the Bible. I have a sermon that I preach that takes it all the way back and starts at least with JFK, if not before. We’ve only had three presidents in modern history who were not owned and possessed by the Cabal, the deep state or who are the Illuminati, whoever you want to say. Only three. JFK, and they murdered him. Ronald Reagan, and they tried to murder him. And Donald Trump. … What’s happened in this nation is that the cabal or whoever you want to call them, they have chosen every president and congressional leader on both sides of the aisle and said, “We will keep you in power. We will fill your bank accounts. You just keep war occurring in the world.” And they did.

Miller took aim at both political parties before landing on a chastisement of Democrats and progressive Christians.

Listen, I got sick of the Republicans a long time ago. I used to preach all the time, all they did was hijack the abortion issue to enslave the church. And by the way, whether it was rigged or not, whether what happened in Texas was this, that or the other, here’s what I can tell you: Talarico and all the rest of them, they were elected by the church in Texas. It doesn’t matter if it’s Catholic, if it’s Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, people who claim to know the name of Jesus elected them. Which means we’ve got a problem.

As his sermon continued, Miller painted the election and what should be the response to it in increasingly violent terms.

I said Tuesday night, I said, “Lord, how in the world did this happen?” ‘Cause I’m telling you, when I saw what happened to Texas happen, as an Arkansan, I thought, “My goodness gracious.” I couldn’t believe it. I’m not trying to be ugly, but you elected somebody that says God is nonbinary and there’s six genders. In Arkansas, we don’t even claim to be as smart as y’all are, but even we wouldn’t do that. This is demonic. This is not politics. This is the devil. And you better get a handle on this thing because. … Listen, from Al Sayed in Michigan, this radical Islamic extremist who hates America, to Talarico who is a fundamentally perverted human being, they’re there until 2032 unless they get kicked out or God kills them. You think we don’t need to step up into some warfare?

Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church
An SBC megachurch in Plano, Texas

Jack Graham, like Jeffress, is one of the few Trump-supporting pastors with seminary and advanced degrees. He has been senior pastor at Prestonwood since 1989.

More than any other pastor’s sermon, Graham’s was especially partisan and offered the most detailed explanation of what he believed happened. He also called out the politicians in the congregation — including Candy Noble, who was the lead House sponsor for the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools. Interestingly, Graham even considered the viability of Senate Bill 10 now that Texas went blue. “And it was it was a loss — somebody like Candy. She’s the one who put up the Ten Commandments bill that passed. We don’t know where that’ll go for now. We can only imagine.”

According to Graham’s analysis of “what happened” in the election, it can be boiled down to the fact that “God’s people sat it out. Too many of the American churchmen and women sat this out. … Now, the ones that turned out seem to vote in the right direction, but we’re down in the turnout.”

Graham then moved to the heart of his sermon, which focused on Acts 5. But before doing so, like other pastors in this list, he falsely attributed the blue wave to the “Islamization” of America:

I’m praying that this will be a wake-up call because we have some — I’m concerned about the election, but I’m more concerned about the future of our country. Amen. That’s what I’m concerned about. The direction that our country is moving. And you see Islamism moving, social democracy or democratic socialism, communism (is) on the move. Say, “Well, it’s not much comparatively,” but I’m telling you, it’s moving. The gentleman who won up in Michigan, the Senate race, announced proudly that Michigan, that the capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., but the capital of Michigan is now the capital of the Arab nation — is now Islam. It is an Arab Nation. And so that’s happening.

It’s happening here in North Texas. And dare I say, it’s happening across the street from our own congregation here at Prestonwood. There’s a Muslim operation across the street. I don’t know the people who are operating it. I intend to get to know them. They have every right to be there. There’s religious freedom in this country. You have the right to be there. You don’t have the right to bring terror to our country. And I’m not saying that this operation is bringing anything close to terror. I pray they come in peace and moderation, but the fact is there’s a seminary there. There’s an elementary school there. There are hundreds and hundreds of people worshiping there. Again, this is across the street from our church. I consider that a mission field and an opportunity for us to share the gospel and that we intend to be hospitable. But we also understand that there is a movement in North Texas much like what happened and has happened in Michigan. And the designs upon North Texas is to bring mosque and the Muslim movement, Islamism into this into our nation.

And this unholy alliance between communism, Marxism and Islamism. And so you have this going and you say, “Well, it’s not that big a deal.” It is a big deal. I’m telling you, it’s a big deal. Now, I’m quite willing to have a God contest because I know our God reigns and our God rules. That’s what Elijah did when he called the prophets of Baal out and he said, “Let the God who answers by fire.”

So, you know, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. And but truly the answer for all of this, the spiritual decline of the nation, the political drift of the nation, where the nation is apparently going in these days, we’ll see. Next election, it may swing back. We don’t know. But in the end, it’s all about the numbers. It’s all about people going to the polls.

 

Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as the first Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas where she recently was ordained to the gospel ministry. She earned the master of divinity degree and a certificate in spiritual direction from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company, which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.