Former President Donald Trump’s most devout supporters gathered last week at the inaugural National Faith Summit in Powder Springs to pray for him and for his campaign.
The audience was more diverse than his usual rallies, an indication of the diversity among evangelical Christians that make up a key component of Trump’s base. While the vast majority of Black voters are poised to support Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, many evangelical Black voters say they are siding with the pastors and congregations who believe Trump is the only correct choice at the ballot box.
“When I look at voting for a president, I’m always looking from a biblical perspective about the laws, about philosophies that they’re bringing into our country,” said Pastor Robert Flowers of the Center of Hope Church in St. Louis. “His views about the border, about abortion, about different things like that, they are biblical views that as Christians we must support and uphold.”
Pastor Enos Chamberlain, founder of the Destiny Worship Center in Columbia, Missouri, said his support for Trump endures despite knowing that Trump himself isn’t particularly devout. Chamberlain said the Bible contains many examples of God using a person for good even if they didn’t “look the part.”
“There are countless examples in the Bible about King Hazael, Jehu, Cyrus,” he said. “These were heathen kings that God used to secure God’s people’s freedoms and values.”
While the former president has supporters among Black evangelicals, most Black churches are led by pastors who do not support Trump, who they perceive as fostering racism, sexism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments. Black church leaders have also historically backed liberal causes, such as expanding the social safety net and voting rights, along with Democratic candidates.
Harris spent her 60th birthday last month at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest. Pastor Jamal Bryant told her she was born “to save democracy,” and the congregation gave her multiple standing ovations.
Black churches like this one reflect the thinking of Black voters in general, who are some of the most reliable Democratic voters. But evangelical churches that draw Black parishioners are where Trump-supporting Black voters are less of an anomaly.
Bertha Brown, who attends the World in Prayer International Apostolic Center near her home in McDonough, said her pastor has encouraged parishioners to support Trump. Both she and her pastor, Belinda Campbell, attended the faith summit. Both are Black women.
In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia with 49.5% of the electorate, compared with Trump’s 49.2% — a separation of less than 12,000 votes. If this year’s election is close, Trump could carry Georgia with just a slight increase from Black voters.
Brown said she strongly believes Christians should support Trump.
“I believe that he’s a chosen vessel for such a time that we’re in, just like Abraham and Moses,” she said. “And I believe he’s one that God has chosen in this hour. It’s proven that God is with him,” she said, referring to Trump’s survival from an assassination attempt.
One white evangelical pastor, Donnie Swaggart, the son of famed televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, said that Black pastors who support Harris are “anti-God.”
“The statement I’m about to make, I’m going to be called a racist and I will be called every name under the sun, but somebody needs to stand up and speak to the Black church,” the younger Swaggart said in a recent sermon. “When the largest African American Pentecostal denomination, when that leader stands up and said I endorse that woman, he was saying, ‘I endorse murder, I endorse homosexuality, I endorse lesbianism, I endorse transgenderism, I endorse every evil that hell could prosper or bring up.’ That’s wrong folks. And the Black churches vote predominantly for the party that is anti-God.”
Those statements caught the attention of many Black pastors who back Harris, including one of her most prominent supporters in Georgia, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. During his Sunday sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Warnock said he had grown frustrated by churches who say they are fighting for religious freedoms and morality but seem less concerned about the poor and the oppressed.
“I heard what they said, and then I looked at who they pick, I have to ask myself, who is their God?” Warnock said. “Who is their God, and what, really, is their religion?”
Warnock also responded directly to Swaggart, saying any attempt to paint the Republican Party as the party of God and Democrats as the party of the devil is a gross oversimplification.
“All of us here know that human beings and politics are much messier than that,” he said. “I’m an elected official; I have to work through a vehicle called a party. But I’m not bound to any party. I’m bowing down to the God of righteousness and justice and truth.”
Tia Mitchell
Tia Mitchell
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