What to Make of Evangelicals for Harris?
Do US Evangelicals have to vote for one specific candidate?
Let me confess that in the UK, Canada, and Australia that “evangelicals” do not constitute a large or unified voting block that can be mobilized for any political party or candidate.
There is no “Evangelicals for Albanese” (the Aussie PM who is a lapsed Catholic), no “Evangelicals for Starmer” (the British PM who is an atheist), and no “Evangelicals for Trudeau” (the Canadian PM who is basically what would happen if Fidel Castro and Cruella de Vil made a baby).
So “Evangelicals for Trump” and “Evangelicals for Harris” is a uniquely American phenomenon.
The best thing I’ve listened to on this subject is Justin Giboney on the Church Politics Podcast. He has a great assessment of Evangelicals for Harris. He is sympathetic but critical. I recommend you listen to him!
Now from what I’ve seen on the internet, there is a bunch of conservative and pro-Trump “evangelicals” calling out Evangelicals for Harris as traitors for shilling for an extreme pro-abortion and pro-LGBT candidate.
Yet among Evangelicals for Harris is my twitter friend Pastor Dwight McKissic. I like the guy and I respect his political convictions, even if I have a few questions for him.
Part of the problem is that conservative US evangelicals still view everything through the abortion lens.
Feel free to disagree with me, but to his credit, Trump appointed Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade. That is good because abortion is now a matter for the states, not the Supreme Court. This effectively depolitizes the court and puts the power to determine the issue in the hands of elected officials and those who elect them.
When Roe vs. Wade was overturned, no other country had made abortion a constitutional right. Yes, France recently changed its constitution to make the right to abortion a constitutional right, but that was in response to the US overturning Roe vs. Wade. So note this: virtually no country in the world makes abortion a constitutional right because they want the issue determined by the populace not by unelected officials. That’s how it is in Australia, the UK, Canada, and most countries I know of. Overturning Roe vs. Wade ended American exceptionalism on abortion.
And yet, in this presidential election cycle, Trump has top-down and unilaterally watered down the GOP’s stance on restrictions to abortion and alienated his evangelical voters. And yet, strangely to me, conservative evangelicals remain tethered to him.
So three things are playing in my mind.
First, I once watched a Fox News forum in North Carolina where a man said words to the effect, “If Trump gets Roe vs. Wade overturned, that’d be great, because we won’t need to vote for him in a second term.” I think there’s a logic to that position one can appreciate.
Second, US evangelicals are now having to choose between two pro-abortion candidates, which means abortion should not be the dividing issue. The difference is of degree, not kind! And yet, people still talk as if the main issue is pro or anti-abortion.
Third, what if there are other issues besides abortion for American evangelicals to consider? What if there are criticisms that urgently need to be raised against Harris and Trump?
For instance …
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