Eat, pray, vote: the evangelists who Trump’s counting on for a miracle
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Then came the rancorous confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault.
The issue lit a fire under conservatives who felt that their values, as well as Kavanaugh’s reputation, were under attack.
A big chunk of this district is what you could describe as the buckle of the Bible Belt.
“It was a huge plus for us,” Harris says of the Kavanaugh confirmation fight. “We have a lot of momentum now.”
In his campaign advertisements, Harris quotes from the scriptures and emphasises his religious faith – going far beyond what even the most devout Australian politican would attempt.
It’s a strategy he believes will appeal to voters here.
“A big chunk of this district is what you could describe as the buckle of the Bible Belt,” he says.
He says his time as a pastor helping people battling opiod addiction or sudden unemployment is the perfect preparation for Congress.
Harris’s Democrat opponent, Dan McCready, a clean-energy executive and army veteran, is also a born-again Christian. During his service in Iraq, he was baptised in water from the Euphrates River and he attends a Presbyterian church in Charlotte.
But Harris has painted him as too left-wing for Christian voters because he supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have spent big on attack ads targeting Harris for a 2013 sermon in which he called on women to “submit” to their husbands and another in which he questioned whether women pursuing careers was “a healthy pursuit for society”.
“As a Christian, I believe that we are all created in God’s image,” McCready said when the sermons were unearthed. “That means men and women are equally valuable and equally capable. My opponent, Mark Harris, is out of step with this district and this century.”
A still from the Democrat “attack” ad on Mark Harris.Credit:DCCC
Such attacks will have no traction with 86-year-old John Henry, a member of Charlotte First Baptist Church for the past 22 years. Harris was his pastor and he hopes will soon be his congressman. “He’s a good and thoughtful man,” he says.
Henry takes his commitment to God seriously. As a young man working in the sales industry he snuck copies of Christian pamphlets into a colleague’s Playboy collection in an attempt to lead him away from sin.
“We vote for Bible values,” he says, sitting next to his wife Martha, 91, at their home outside of Charlotte.
“Abortion is murder. God tells us so, science tells us so.”
A service in Charlotte’s First Baptist Church. Credit:Logan Cyrus
In the 2016 Republican primaries, Henry initially supported John Kasich, the Ohio governor who has written two books about his Christian faith.
But he’s delighted with the first two year’s of Trump’s presidency. “Trump just wants what is right for America,” he says. “He is looking out for Christians.”
They see political activity as an assignment from God.
Henry is a member of a group that pollster George Barna calls SAGE-Cons: Spiritually Active Government Engaged Conservatives. He estimates there are between 20 and 25 million of them in America – almost 10 per cent of voters – and they are an electoral force to be reckoned with.
“They see political activity as an assignment from God, not something to do when they have time on their hands,” explains Barna, himself a practising Christian.
“They vote at a much higher levels than other Americans. They talk to people about elections. They donate at higher levels. They try to get like-minded people to register to vote.”
President Trump at the March for Life in Washington.Credit:Bloomberg
For most of these voters, a lewd, womanising casino and hotel magnate with a history of liberal positions on social issues was not their first choice.
In practice, Trump is the least godly president in recent US history. During the 2016 campaign, the pastor at a Protestant church in Manhattan had to clarify that Trump was not an “active member” there, despite Trump saying he attended services at the church.
The prospect of a Clinton presidency? Armageddon.
“SAGE-Cons disagreed with Trump’s lifestyle, some of his moral perspectives, and they weren’t sure they could trust him,” Barna says. But the prospect of a Clinton presidency? “Armageddon to them,” Barna says.
On election day, SAGE-Cons voted in huge numbers and 93 per cent of them opted for Trump.
“They won him the election,” Barna says.
Since then Trump has actively courted evangelical leaders, hosting special dinners for them in the White House. This year he became the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life rally, an anti-abortion protest that has been held every year in Washington since 1974.
An October poll found that 72 per cent of white evangelicals approve of his performance – far higher than any other social group. Even reports of hush-money payments to porn stars have not dented their support.
“He may not know much about the Bible but he is doing the things they want,” Barna says. “They have very few complaints about him other than his tweeting.”
Reverend Ben Boswell: “There is no Christian defence for what Trump has said and done.”Credit:Logan Cyrus
Indeed, the list of victories Trump has handed this constituency is long. He’s put two conservative judges on the Supreme Court and allowed states to stop funding health clinics that provide abortions. He’s also created a new federal office promoting religious freedom and moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a city with profound significance to evangelicals.
“I know a lot of people are still perplexed: why are Christians so supportive of Donald Trump?” Robert Jeffress, pastor of a Dallas megachurch, said in a recent Fox News interview.
“Well, it’s really not that hard to figure out when you realise he is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-conservative judiciary in history and that includes either Bush or Ronald Reagan.”
The alliance between Trump and evangelical voters, though, has required some mental gymnastics.
In a 2011 poll, only 30 per cent of white evangelicals said that “an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfil their duties in their public and professional life”.
Asked the same question just before the 2016 election, 72 per cent of white evangelicals said this was possible.
Polls also show white evangelicals have become significantly less likely to say it is “very important” for a political candidate to have strong religious beliefs.
The willingness to prioritise policy wins over personal morality is cause for alarm for Ben Boswell, the senior pastor at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte’s posh, leafy suburbs.
“There is no Christian defence for what Trump has said and done, only a utilitarian one: politics is broken and corrupt, we’ll do what it takes to win, the ends justify the means. That is not a biblical idea.”
Bowell says his church represents the “radical opposite” of the theology practised by Mark Harris, whom he calls a “Christian supremacist”. At Myers Park, women priests are allowed to be deacons, openly gay parishioners are welcomed and sermons promote the need for environmental and racial justice.
The church is a reminder that Christian voters are not monolithic: 75 per cent of African-American Protestants and 59 per cent of Catholics view Trump negatively, recent polls show.
But Boswell acknowledges his church is an anomaly in the white evangelical ecosystem that dominates the South.
Mark Harris, left, and President Trump, far right, at a midterm rally for Harris in Charlotte.Credit:Alamy
Before driving to Trump’s rally, the Values Voter Bus activists head to a bar in downtown Charlotte for an event promoting local Republican candidates. The rain is still cascading down but their spirits are high.
The TV sets, all tuned to Fox News, are lighting up with breaking news. A passionate Trump supporter has just been arrested in Florida for sending pipe bombs to a dozen prominent left-wing figures. But no one pays any attention.
“This country was birthed out of prayer,” Randy Wilson, the Family Research Council’s national field director, tells the crowd. “We are campaigning for righteousness in this land. If this nation doesn’t remain virtuous and moral it will fall apart.”
At least in this corner of the country, he’s backing Chick-fil-A values to triumph over Whole Foods values on election day.
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