Some evangelicals who backed President Trump are doing soul searching after Capitol attacks
Updated Jan 15, 2021;
Posted Jan 15, 2021
FILE Evangelicals, who make up about 1 in 5 voters and overwhelmingly propelled Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016, are facing what some of their faith leaders are calling a day of reckoning for their blind embrace of a man who flaunted seemingly anti-Christian transgressions. In this file photo from Sept. 9, people pray at an anti-abortion event at Cornerstone Ministries church in Export. (Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP, File)AP
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For years evangelical leaders have been warning that the very actions of the faithful could destroy their faith community.
Most Evangelical Trump Voters Didnât Turn on Mike Pence
While Trump extremists set the vice president up as a traitor, most believers stood by his decision to confirm the election.
Kate Shellnutt| Image: Megan Varner / Getty Images
At a farewell gathering last Friday, outgoing Vice President Mike Pence recalled the Bible reference his chief of staff texted him after he certified Joe Biden’s victory,
The Washington Post reported. It was 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Pence was pushed into the political spotlight during the tense final weeks of the presidential term, as he refused President Donald Trump’s demands that he use his position to fight the election results and then refused Democrats’ demands that he invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
Image: Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Support for President Donald Trump has been consistently strong among evangelicals, with some professing that he has been the best friend Christians have had in the White House.
On the first Sunday since a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election stormed the US Capitol and five people including a police officer died, the messages from the pulpits of Christian leaders who’ve backed Trump were as disparate as the opinions of the nation’s citizenry.
They ranged from recitations of debunked conspiracy theories of who was responsible, to calls for healing and following Jesus Christ rather than any individual person, to sermons that made no mention of Wednesday’s chaos and what it means for the future.