LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — Marlin J. Reed stood before hundreds of people in a suburban Detroit chapel at an event organized by Donald Trump’s campaign and declared that God had called her to support the former president voices.
“You are being asked to stand up and confront this darkness and these lies and refuse to stop talking but to speak out and stand up and make it clear that we will not stand for this,” Reed said. the pastor of New Wine Glory Ministries in Livonia, Michigan: “We will not lie, we will not let you take our land and take away our rights and freedoms.”
“Even if it means war, we won’t let you take it,” Reid said to cheers.
Trump’s campaign has directly promoted a fusion of far-right politics and theology to empower evangelical Christians in swing states. The campaign has launched a “Believers for Trump” program and held several conversations with conservative faith leaders, mostly evangelical pastors, to discuss how to mobilize their congregations for Trump. The Republican candidate is planning an event near Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday with allied pastors.
The “Believers for Trump” initiative includes outreach to Black voters, a traditionally Democratic constituency with whom Trump has sought to raise his support. The Oct. 5 stop in Michigan featured black speakers such as Ben Carson, a longtime Trump deputy who was his housing secretary. Carson urged evangelicals not to shy away from what he called “corrupt” earthly politics.
“If Jesus Christ isn’t on the ballot, you always have to choose the lesser of two evils,” Carson said to applause. “That’s why God gave you a brain.”
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who spoke at the Republican National Convention and whose church in Detroit hosted a black conservative roundtable with Trump over the summer, mobilized the crowd and proclaimed that the United States must remain a Christian country.
The Democrats have also increased their contacts with churchgoers
Churches in African American communities have long conducted “Souls to the Polls” campaigns to mobilize black voters. Black pastors traditionally speak about political issues from a moral and spiritual perspective. Similarly, conservative evangelical pastors have often spoken openly about opposition to abortion in the past, but have formally refrained from endorsing Republican candidates.
Democrats have also stepped up outreach to church voters.
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee held a call to launch its “Souls to the Polls” campaign with civil rights leader Martin Luther King III, who endorsed Harris and called Trump “a disaster for black America.” The campaign has launched its own “Souls to the Polls” program and the creation of a faith advisory board of progressive faith leaders that includes Harris’ pastor, Amos C. Brown, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Harris has visited black churches this month, including the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday morning.
Religious voter engagement in the 2024 election highlights an unprecedented mixing of partisan politics and Christianity at a time when many churches are seeing declines in attendance and issues like the coronavirus pandemic and liberalizing cultural norms dominate debate in many communities.
At the end of his event with Carson, Reid boasted that the gathering had already sparked some online backlash against bringing politics into a religious space.
“I am being attacked on Facebook. Several people tell me that I will go to prison and break the law and that you can’t do politics in the church,” he said.
He noted that he had not registered his church as a nonprofit organization that had to officially remain nonpartisan so he could say whatever he wanted.
“I knew this day would come a long time ago. We’re a different kind of charter,” he said.
Trump and conservative Christians have embraced each other
Trump, a former New York playboy once viewed with great skepticism by evangelical Christian leaders, is now viewed by the Christian right as a champion of religious freedom. GOP events are filled with Christian iconography and many Trump supporters say he has been divinely blessed, especially after he survived an assassination attempt at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A man at Trump’s October rally in Butler carried a gigantic wooden cross.
Trump often posts Christian prayers and pictures. He has licensed a “God Bless the USA” Bible – made in China and sold for $59.99 – which includes copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as the text of the King James Version. Version and lyrics for his campaign include strike song “God Bless The USA”.
The Campaign for Christians program includes a “Believer and Voter” program. According to a program overview, the goal will be to boost mail-in and early voting efforts locally by training “church captains” to coordinate their respective congregations on behalf of the campaign. This overview contains a disclaimer requiring churches to consult legal counsel regarding how congregations can participate in the program.
Trump-aligned groups, including Turning Point USA and the America First Policy Institute, have outlined plans to mobilize conservative Christian voters to vote on cultural issues such as abortion, LGBTQ rights and public education curricula.
“How often do we have to emphasize that there are civilizational aspects to this? When we lose, it’s largely because pastors and Christians arrogantly say to God, “We don’t care.” We’re more religious than Donald Trump. I hope they enjoy the gulags,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.
The Trump campaign had missteps
The campaign had missteps in reaching religious voters.
Trump posted an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Catholics celebrate the birth of Mary on September 8, leaving out the nuances of the two figures. While his campaign was careful to spotlight black pastors who support Trump, the campaign also incorrectly listed a Detroit black pastor as a supporter in its promotional materials. This pastor is an ardent supporter of Harris.
In July, Trump faced backlash for telling an audience of conservative Christians that they “don’t have to vote anymore” after the November election. “Christians, go out and vote. Only this time,” Trump said. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It will be fixed. It will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Evangelical leaders close to Trump are increasingly using the rhetoric that he is “anointed” to wage “spiritual warfare” against Democrats.
White evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Trump this year, according to a Pew Research Center poll. White Catholic voters also largely support the former president’s re-election. However, according to Pew, Trump lags significantly behind in support from other faith communities, including Protestant Christians, Hispanic Catholics, black Protestant voters, Jewish and Muslim Americans, and atheist or agnostic voters.
Not all evangelical Christians support Trump. Some faith leaders have launched an “Evangelicals for Harris” campaign aimed at encouraging their fellow evangelicals to stand up for them.
The event in Livonia contained hardly any biblical references. Carson claimed in his remarks that immigrants who entered the United States illegally were violent criminals who were deliberately sent to the border by other countries “where stupid people would take care of them.”
“Frankly, we see the opposite on the other side,” said Albert Mughannem, a real estate agent in Livonia who supported Carson. “We see evil, we see demons.”
