Some of Donald Trump’s evangelical supporters are ratcheting up their attacks against Kamala Harris in the aftermath of last week’s presidential debate, going so far as to compare her once again to “Jezebel” and calling the Democratic Party “demonic.”
The charges come from some of the more fringe figures in evangelicalism and Christian nationalism backing the former president, but still have significant online followings.
Lance Wallnau, a charismatic evangelical who heads the Lance Learning Group, a teaching and consulting group in Dallas and who has a Facebook following of 1 million, suggested Harris’ ability to provoke Trump during the debate was proof of what he called a “Jezebel spirit.”
“When you’ve got someone operating in manipulation, intimidation and domination, especially when it’s in a female role, trying to emasculate a man who is standing up for truth, you’re dealing with a Jezebel spirit,” he said in a clip shared by Right Wing Watch from a show called “Fire Power.”
“When you’ve got someone … trying to emasculate a man who is standing up for truth, you’re dealing with a Jezebel spirit.”
“What was accomplished was she can look presidential and that’s — and we’ll get to this later — that’s the seduction of what I would say is witchcraft,” he continued. “That spirit, that occult spirit, is operating on her and through her.”
Wallnau has called Trump “God’s Cyrus,” a reference to the Persian king in the Bible who ended Babylonian captivity, allowing the Jewish people to return to Israel and rebuild the temple.
Sean Feucht, an extreme right-wing Christian dominionist personality, sings at a gathering of evangelical zionists April 25, 2024. (Photo by John Rudoff/Sipa USA via AP Images)
Sean Feucht, the musician turned political candidate turned Trump advocate who gained notoriety for holding large revival-style worship gatherings across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, tweeted his thoughts throughout the debate.
“KAMALA IS A RADICAL BABY KILLING MANIAC!” he tweeted when the topic of abortion came up. “Finally America can see how demonically possessed she is!!!!”
He later echoed a Republican talking point about the debate’s moderators. “This is a 3 verses (sic] 1 debate tonight,” he tweeted to his 137,000 followers. “Even with the massive disadvantage, Kamala’s incompetence, manipulation and slime are obvious to everyone watching. She channels the Jezebel spirit.”
Feucht said he held a virtual prayer meeting before the debate that included what he called “very detailed prayer points gathered from politicians, pollsters and believers on the inside.”
Landon Schott, pastor of Mercy Culture Church, which has Texas campuses in Fort Worth, East Fort Worth, Waco, Dallas and Austin, posted on Instagram Wednesday a photo saying, “Presidential options ‘Who are you voting for?’” with two options: Jezebel and King Saul.
During the Democratic National Convention, Schott shared a post with his more than 35,000 followers, calling Democrats the “Demon Party,” and saying Christians shouldn’t support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Landon Schott
“YOU ARE NOT A BIBLE BELIEVING, JESUS FOLLOWING CHRISTIAN IF YOU SUPPORT THE GODLESS ROMANS 1 EVIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!” he wrote in the caption.
“I’m not a republican and their (sic) are evils on both sides but tell me how you’re a Christian that Biblically supports the DEMONIC policies of the Democratic Party?!?”
One week later, Schott shared a graphic declaring, “I’m an election denier!” and said “Election integrity is one of my highest concerns in the democratic process.”
Jezebel refers to the biblical figure who is the wife of Ahab, the King of Israel. In the biblical narrative, she replaced the worship of God with the worship of Ba’al. According to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University, the term “Jezebel spirit” has been a slur wielded against women for a long time.
“Essentially, any woman who they perceive as a threat to their power or their theology or their agenda can be labeled a ‘Jezebel’ — a woman who channels evil spirits and influences the men under her,” she said.
“In some spaces, it’s just a way to smear a woman they don’t like,” she continued. “That’s bad enough but in charismatic circles, there are people who take this kind of language more literally. When they call a woman a ‘Jezebel’ or accuse a woman of having a ‘Jezebel spirit,’ they are suggesting she is doing the work of the devil.”
Kristin Kobes Du Mez
She says it’s not surprising to hear the term used by people like Feucht, whom she calls “essentially MAGA evangelists.”
Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne explores the history of the relationship between evangelicals and the Republican Party. She says loyalty to the GOP and the demonization of the Democratic Party are nothing new, stretching back to the rise of the Christian Right during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. This gave way to what she describes as a “staunch allegiance to ‘pro-life’ politics and the Republican Party” that became a nonnegotiable in conservative evangelical groups.
“What’s important to realize is that comments like this reflect the deep and longstanding financial and organizational ties between evangelical faith leaders, rightwing donors and Republican Party operatives,” she noted.
What is new, Du Mez observed, is the reaction from evangelicals who have left the conservative fold since 2016 to last month’s Democratic National Convention, particularly the speeches from former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, who often were vilified by conservative evangelicals. “I saw several evangelicals or former evangelicals lament the lies they had been led to believe about the Obamas in the 2000s. Now, hearing their words, they grieve what they missed out on, and what they had participated in,” she said.
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