Donald Trump’s evangelical supporters are not happy about a new group called Evangelicals for Harris — as in Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In their view, anyone who favors Harris over Trump in this year’s presidential election is forsaking the Christian faith.
The Nashville Tennessean quoted Denny Burk, president of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “The group aims to convince evangelicals of the Christian bona fides of Kamala Harris, but they have to distort orthodox Christianity to do so. It is, in fact, a betrayal of the gospel.”
Newsweek reported on Franklin Graham’s response to a new TV ad put out by Evangelicals for Harris that shows a clip of his late father, evangelist Billy Graham.
Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, arrives to speak on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris,” Franklin Graham charged. “They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image. They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”
Franklin Graham has been an outspoken supporter of Trump despite the former president’s moral failures, habitual lying, cruelty and lack of evidence of a Christian faith.
Tom Ascol, leader of the most conservative Calvinistic wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, tweeted out a list of speakers in advance of the Aug. 14 Evangelicals for Harris event: “Save this. If (God forbid!) Kamala Harris becomes the next POTUS, then help our children & children’s children know who — in the name of Christ — helped send this nation further away from the fear of God.”
Ascol, a Florida pastor, is an abortion abolitionist who teaches a male hierarchy in church and home that makes women subject to their husbands.
One of the speakers at the Wednesday evening video event was another prominent Southern Baptist pastor, Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.
McKissic, a theological conservative, has crossed horns with Ascol over the SBC’s ban on women serving as pastors.
Before the event, McKissic explained on X that he never before has endorsed a presidential nominee from the pulpit.
“I still don’t plan to endorse a candidate in my pulpit, which actually violates our policy as a church on political endorsements,” he said. “Matter of fact, Mike Huckabee preached for me the year he ran for president, but there was no mention made of his candidacy. … At a North Dallas hotel, I stood beside Jimmy Draper, Robert Morris, Jack Graham and others to publicly endorse Huckabee as a private citizen.”
This year, McKissic added, “because the stakes are so high, there’s too much at risk for me to be silent in this election. I appreciate the counsel and caution to remain neutral publicly and to withdraw from participating even as a private citizen, from the Evangelicals for Harris movement. I can’t remain silent, though.”
“Because the stakes are so high, there’s too much at risk for me to be silent in this election.”
Evangelicals have a one-sided disdain for political involvement in church, the pastor added. “When Gov. Rick Perry worshipped at our church, and also spoke for a teacher appreciation/back to school celebration at my church, not one SBC/evangelical cautioned or counseled me to be silent or neutral, or distance myself. When I stood by George W. Bush to help pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Texas, no SBC/evangelical counseled or encouraged me to distance myself from George W. Bush. I toured Texas speaking to the eight largest cities in Texas, with Gov. Perry at each stop, preaching the message, ‘Are Gay Rights and Civil Rights, Parallel?’ I faced backlash and criticism from certain segments of the Black community, but never from the white evangelical community. I even spoke admirably and appreciatively regarding the candidacy of Sarah Palin. Again, absolutely no evangelical cautions or counsel was given … only a segment of Black rejection and backlash.
“Now, that I see merit and value as a private citizen to reach the conviction and conclusion that Kamala Harris is far better qualified, and consequently (would) be a better president, white evangelicals and a handful of Blacks are screaming I shouldn’t do this. … Just like I dismissed Black pressure to distance myself from, or not speak approvingly of Huckabee, Perry, Bush, Palin, and Daddy Bush … I’m not going to succumb to the pressure to distance myself from Evangelicals for Harris.”
Another Black speaker at the Wednesday evening event already is considered suspect by white evangelicals because of his writing and advocacy for racial justice.
Jemar Tisby, a bestselling author and professor at Simmons College of Kentucky, spoke and then published his comments on his Substack.
“From the moment the organization announced the event, all the speakers became the victims of online attacks.”
“From the moment the organization announced the event, all the speakers became the victims of online attacks,” he wrote in a preface. He cited Laura Loomer, whom he called “a self-styled ‘investigative’ journalist,” who tweeted, “Where are the sane Christians to push back on this drivel?”
After the Wednesday evening event, Loomer posted multiple times on X about it, demonizing the speakers and their agenda.
“I listened to your entire call. I spent nearly 3 hours of my night listening to your call,” she wrote in one post. “I think you are mistaking Marxism for love. You seem to hate America, you clearly resent white people, you spoke badly about Trump, and you preached about a desire to see open borders and your desire for illegals to invade our country. That’s not love. That’s a recipe for destruction. You are pushing a radical agenda. It’s sad to see. Kamala Harris is not a loving person. She wants to persecute over half the country. How is that ‘evangelical’?”
The Evangelicals for Harris account interacted with her posts and thanked her for sending more traffic their way.
In his remarks, Tisby began by reiterating a point he has made repeatedly: “White Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy and the witness of the church today.”
He contrasted the “thin” political theology of white evangelicals with the “thick” political theology of evangelicals who oppose Trump and support Harris.
“A thin political theology votes on a single issue without understanding the interconnectedness of multiple issues,” he said. “A thin political theology contends there is only one true Christian party, one true Christian candidate, one true Christian way to vote. White evangelicals have been left ill-equipped by this thin political theology to address the political mess they helped create.”
“White evangelicals have been left ill-equipped by this thin political theology to address the political mess they helped create.”
But a “thick” political theology can live amid tension and doesn’t have to make every issue black and white, he said.
“A thick political theology refrains from apathy and takes decisive action for democracy. A thick political theology does not address the symptoms of a problem but seeks the source of those problems. A thick political theology does not only rely on fear and intimidation but paints a vision for a better future.
“A thick political theology does not seek merely to deconstruct but to reconstruct something better. A thick political theology recognizes we are not seeking to create a theocracy but a democracy. A thick political theology can accept that as much as we want our Christian convictions played out in the public sector, we live in a pluralistic society that must make room for opinions and positions that we personally reject but must have a hearing in a true democracy.”
Tisby concluded: “Two paths lie ahead in this election: a white Christian nationalist authoritarian vision or a participatory or a multi-racial democracy that moves us toward a more perfect union. Evangelicals for Harris, it’s time to employ a thick political theology that prioritizes the needs of our neighbors and a spirit of justice to protect and promote democracy.”
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