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Evangelicals Respond to Trump's Victory

Evangelicals Respond to Trump's Victory

David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
November 9, 2016

These have been historic days in the United States, and will have a ripple effect that cannot yet be predicted, says ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach. "Scholars will be dissecting these events for years to come. Some of our members have been encouraged by this election, and some have been discouraged by its outcome.

"The diversity of the Anglican Church in North America is one of its strengths, and a reflection of the image of God. Being a province that spans not just political parties, but multiple nations is a unique gift, and provides helpful perspective in times such as these.

Beach said the country is in need of healing. "There is a need for reconciliation across the divisions of race, ethnicity, class, and political party. While the issues are complicated, it is clear that many in our country are scared and feeling wounded. This is a time for the Church to be a refuge."

Beach called for prayers for President-elect Donald Trump, and to continue to pray for President Barak Obama, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Other Christian leaders responded to the Trump election.

Franklin Graham, who has distanced himself from the Republican party, nevertheless encouraged voters to vote for the candidate who would appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

Pastor, author, and speaker Ed Stetzer noted that Trump won despite the opposition of many evangelical leaders:

"Evangelical rank and file just have chosen Trump over many of their vocal leaders who warned them not to."

Many Christian leaders, such as Pastor John Piper, reminded followers that God is still in control and God's Kingdom is so much bigger than our elections and government.

"One day America and all its presidents will be a footnote in history, but the kingdom of Jesus will never end."

Author and speaker Beth Moore tweeted that she hopes the church will not add to the political divisiveness:

"My deep hope for the church is that many of us will now go into recovery & break our fierce addiction to the vitriol we've used like Vicodin."

Some Christian leaders like O. Alan Noble, called on the church to separate themselves from Trump and his policies:

"It appears like we will need to continue fervently calling on the church to repudiate Trump and his destructive policies for another 4 years: Pastor Matt Chandler urged Christians to remember the call to embrace the downtrodden:

"The church will have credibility where she fights for diversity, loves the poor and welcomes the immigrant. Keep this in mind as we pray."

Yesterday, Pastor Rick Warren posted an article in which he expressed his hope for America, regardless of who wins the election. After the results came in, he reposted that article, affirming that he is still hopeful for America's future.

"People turn to God when everything else has left them empty, disappointed, and betrayed," he said.

Others, like Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted that he is glad the pro-life cause will advance by Republicans keeping control of the House.

"Thankful for continued Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives. It matters in the cause of defending unborn life."

Danny Akin, the president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted that though he didn't vote for either Clinton or Trump, he will pray for Trump.

Unlike much of the political universe, Trump's inner circle of evangelical advisors was anything but surprised at his victory. More than most, evangelicals cast their lot with Trump early. Many of Trump's key evangelical advisors were with Trump's team on Tuesday in New York to usher in their win together. Liberty University president, Jerry Falwell Jr., talked with Trump four times on Tuesday. It was on their third phone call, while waiting for Trump at the victory party, Falwell says, that Trump realized he was about to win.

"'Jerry, I think they are going to call Pennsylvania,'" Falwell recalls Trump saying. "The next think I know, I'm getting texts from his son-in-law; they were on their way over."

Many of Trump's evangelical leaders were optimistic of Trump's success leading into Election Day. More than a handful drew on spiritual experiences, like prophecies and dreams, for strength. White early on had spiritual visions of God's plan for Trump. Cleveland pastor Darrell Scott's wife, Belinda, has had dreams where God showed her Trump would win. "I prophesized back in the primaries, we are going to win," Mark Burns, televangelist from Easley, South Carolina and Trump surrogate, said. "God uses the least likely, from myself to Donald Trump."

On Tuesday morning, Trump invited several of his top evangelical supporters to visit him in his office. Scott, pastor of Cleveland's New Spirit Revival Center, and Bruce LeVell, the Georgia jeweler who led Trump's National Diversity Coalition, stopped by. Later that afternoon, Scott was with Trump advisor, Michael Cohen, in Trump Tower when he got a random call from one of Clinton's Ohio phone bankers, asking him to vote for Clinton. Scott put the call on speaker, and the room chimed in that they all "hated" Clinton. "The call was the highlight of my day," Scott says.

Robert Jeffress, Southern Baptist pastor of First Dallas and another member of Trump's evangelical advisory board, says Trump and his wife Melania were "very, very upbeat," when he stopped by, and hours before the polls closed, the campaign was "cautiously optimistic." Jeffress reminded Trump that he thought evangelicals would respond to his performance in the third debate, especially his positions on the Supreme Court and on abortion. Trump nodded. "He asked me how I thought the evangelical turnout would be," Jeffress says. "I told him I thought it would be very strong."

More than 80% of white, born-again voters voted for Trump. Clinton received just 16% of the white evangelical vote, the lowest share ever received by a Democratic presidential nominee, according to Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition.

"Evangelicals, white non-college voters, and momentum and intensity proved more important than ground game alone," Reed says. "He went after them unapologetically, did faith-based media, and made an ironclad pledge on judges." Evangelical turnout should not surprise, Scott adds, as evangelicals are "the group that was overlooked by the left, derided, denigrated by the liberal left."

These advisors say that Trump's commitment to evangelicals--and divine providence--put Trump across the finish line Tuesday night. It was a strategy Trump chose early. When he considered a presidential run in 2011, he met with White, Scott and other pastors, and after prayer with them, decided the time was not right.

This cycle, Trump met early on with Pentecostal and evangelical pastors, many of whom were traditional political outsiders, and soon after, evangelical figures like Falwell endorsed him, signaling to the evangelical base that a political outsider could have their trust. Trump created an evangelical advisory board, which held calls with Trump's campaign or RNC strategists every Monday morning since the summer.

The reach of Christian television and particularly the DayStar Network was significant, White says, as well as these pastors' social media. "The way we reach people has changed," White says. "People that normally wouldn't be political were much more engaged, and that showed."

Jeffress says that both Clinton's "corruption" and Trump's commitment to anti-abortion judicial nominations were key factors for evangelical voters. "No Republican candidate has made greater effort to reach out to evangelicals than Trump," Jeffress says. "The real question is why didn't others like Romney and McCain make a similar effort. ...There is a silent Trump vote that polls did not capture and many of those votes are evangelical."

Falwell says many in the media and political class might have been less surprised at the election's outcome if they better understand the evangelical community. "Evangelical theology is all about forgiveness," he says. "When you look at the issues, he ended up being the dream candidate for conservatives and evangelicals. The evangelical community has not been divided on Trump, just the leadership--the people were smarter than their leaders."

However, not all eulogized the election result. One blogger said that religious leaders failed by being willing to support someone they should have condemned both on his personal morality and his business ethics, to say nothing of his almost lack of honesty in his public pronouncements.

END

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