LIVONIA, MI — Standing in front of hundreds of people in a chapel in suburban Detroit at an event organized by Donald Trump’s campaignMarlin J. Reed stated that God had called them to vote for the former president.
“You are called upon to stand up and face this darkness and face these lies and refuse to stop speaking, but to stand up and stand up and to announce that we will not accept this,” Reed said. the pastor of New Wine Glory Ministries in Livonia, Michigan: “We are not going to sit around, we are not going to allow you to take our land and take away our rights and freedoms.”
“Even if it means war, we won’t let you take it,” Reid said, cheering.
Trump’s campaign has done just that immediately led to a fusion of far-right politics and theology to energize evangelical Christians in swing states. The campaign has launched a “Believers for Trump” program and held several conversations with conservative faith leaders, predominantly evangelical pastors, about 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 involves reaching black voters, a traditionally Democratic constituency with which Trump has tried to grow his support. The Oct. 5 stop in Michigan featured black speakers such as Ben Carson, a longtime Trump surrogate who served as his housing secretary. Carson urged evangelicals not to shy away from what he called “corrupt” earthly politics.
“Unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot, you’re always choosing between 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 this summer, rallied the crowd and proclaimed that the United States must remain a Christian country.
Churches in African American communities have been active for a long time “Souls to the polls” efforts to mobilize black voters. Black pastors have a tradition of speaking about political issues with a moral and spiritual lens. Likewise, conservative evangelical pastors have often spoken openly in the past about opposition to abortion, but have officially refrained from supporting Republican candidates.
Democrats have also expanded their reach to church voters.
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee hosted a call to launch its “Souls to the Polls” effort with civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, who endorsed Harris and called Trump “a disaster for Black America.” own “Souls to the Polls” program and created a faith advisory board of progressive faith leaders, including Harris’ pastor, Amos C. Brown, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Harris has visited black churches this month, including New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday morning.
The involvement of religious voters in the 2024 election underlines an unprecedented mixing of party politics with Christianity at a time when many churches have seen attendance declines and issues such as the coronavirus pandemic and liberalizing cultural norms dominate debate within many congregations.
At the end of his event with Carson, Reid boasted that the meeting had already sparked some backlash online for bringing politics into a religious space.
“I am being attacked on Facebook. I’ve had several people say to me, ‘I’m going to jail and I’m breaking the law, and you can’t do politics in the church,'” he said.
He noted that he had not registered his church as a nonprofit organization that must officially remain nonpartisan, so he could say what he wanted.
“I’ve known this day would come for a long time. We have a different kind of charter,” he said.
Trump was a former New York playboy who was once viewed with great skepticism by evangelical Christian leaders and is now embraced by the Christian right as a champion of religious freedom. GOP events are filled with Christian iconography and many Trump supporters say he is 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 large wooden cross.
Trump often posts Christian prayers and images. He Licensed a ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible – made in China and on sale for $59.99 – includes copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, in addition to the lyrics of the King James Version and the lyrics of his campaign strike song ‘God Bless The USA’.
The campaign program for Christians includes a ‘Believers and Ballots’ programme. It aims to boost mail-in and in-person early voting by training “church captains” who will coordinate their respective congregations on behalf of the campaign, according to a program overview. That overview includes a disclaimer warning churches to seek legal advice on 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 in the election around cultural issues such as abortion, LGBTQ rights and public education curricula.
“How often do we have to emphasize that there are civilization-defining issues in this area? If we lose, it will be largely because pastors and Christians arrogantly tell God, “We don’t care. We are more religious than Donald Trump. I hope they enjoy the gulags,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.
The campaign has had missteps in reaching religious voters.
Trump posted an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on September 8, when Catholics celebrate the birth of Mary, omitting the nuance of the two figures. While his campaign was eager to highlight Black pastors who support Trump, the campaign also incorrectly listed a Detroit Black pastor as a supporter in its promotional materials. That pastor is an avid Harris supporter.
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, get out and vote. Only this time,” Trump said. “You don’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It will be resolved. It’ll be fine. You don’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Evangelical leaders in Trump’s inner circle have increasingly used 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 bid. But Trump lags significantly in support from other faith communities, including Protestant Christians, Hispanic Catholics, black Protestant voters, Jewish and Muslim Americans, and atheist or agnostic voters, according to Pew.
Not all evangelical Christians are voting for Trump. Some faith leaders have launched an initiative Evangelical Christians for Harris campaign aimed at their fellow evangelicals to stand up for her.
The event in Livonia contained few references to the Bible. Carson claimed in his remarks that immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally were violent criminals deliberately sent by foreign countries to the border “where foolish people would take care of them.”
“Frankly, we’re seeing the opposite on the other side,” said Albert Mughannem, a Livonia real estate agent who came to support Carson. “We see evil, we see demons.”