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‘Evangelicals for Harris’ Launches, Claiming VP ‘Better Reflects Christian Values’ than Trump

  • Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
  • Updated Aug 19, 2024
‘Evangelicals for Harris’ Launches, Claiming VP ‘Better Reflects Christian Values’ than Trump

A group of evangelical leaders has launched a coalition to support Kamala Harris for president, saying she "better reflects Christian values" than Republican Donald Trump and has a "life of public service" that is a "reflection of her faith in Christ," according to its website. Evangelicals for Harris launched in recent days and includes several names well-known within the evangelical community, including Dwight McKissic, the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and a former trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Claude Alexander, pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, N.C., and a board of trustees member for Gordon-Conwell Seminary and chairman of the board of directors at Christianity Today. 

Its website, EvangelicalsforHarris.com, says more than 200,000 evangelical Christians have signed a pledge to support the Harris-Walz ticket.

"Evangelicals don't have to change who they are; they just need to reaffirm who they are by voting for someone who better reflects Christian values," it says.

The coalition held a Zoom call Wednesday to rally support for the Democratic ticket.

"Evangelicals for Harris is a project founded because of our Christian belief in the common good," the website says. "As Evangelicals it is our calling from God to love our neighbors, to serve those less fortunate than us, and to stand up in defense of the weak.

"While we should let our light shine in every aspect of our daily lives, fulfilling our calling in today's world requires engaging in politics," it adds. "Whether it be voting, sharing beliefs on social media, or even campaigning, we need to make sure our words and actions match our core Christian values of love, service, justice, and grace."

Critics, though, say the coalition is promoting unbiblical positions. Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a World Opinions column that the website is silent about the "radical" positions of Harris on abortion and gender. 

"What this website describes is not the faith 'once for all committed to the saints' (Jude 3)," Burk wrote. "It's barbarism and syncretism in the service of partisan politics. It is wrong for any Christian to portray this kind of message as if it were in any way faithful to the Christian gospel. It is, in fact, a betrayal of the gospel. This isn't evangelical. It's not even Christian. Don't fall for it."

Harris "supports the legal right to kill a child through all nine months of pregnancy" and "has even opposed bills that would protect the lives of babies who survive abortions, which, of course, is infanticide," Burk wrote.

Robert A. J. Gagnon, visiting scholar of Bible at Wesley Biblical Seminary, also criticized the concept of "Evangelicals for Harris."

"'Evangelicals for Harris' is an oxymoron, indeed an insult to our intelligence," Gagnon wrote on X. "The two greatest idols of the Democratic Party are abortion and oppressive trans and gay policy, amounting to state-sponsored child abuse. Two of the most extreme proponents of these twin idols are Harris and Walz, high priestess and priest of these cults. Their idols are seminal sea-change issues of huge importance to society. That's why the Harris/Walz ticket has made it their two most important concerns." 

The website includes Harris's positions as well as a faith testimony, which says she grew up "singing in the children's choir at the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California" and with a "living faith, one that expresses itself through one's life, especially through service to others, particularly the vulnerable and powerless."

"Harris' favorite Bible verse -- 'We walk by faith and not by sight' (2 Cor. 5:7) -- recognizes that we don't have all the answers, but also that we do not face life's challenges alone. Our loving God is with us. 'The God I have always believed in is a loving God.' It is this God in whom Kamala puts her trust," the website says. 

The coalition was announced within days that another evangelical columnist and attorney, David French, announced in a New York Times column he was voting for Harris "in part to try to save conservatism." Trump and his followers, French asserted, have "pushed Republicans further and further away from Reaganite conservatism" and have "divorced Republican voters from any major consideration of character in leadership, and all the while," they have "labeled people who resisted the change as 'traitors.'"

McKissic explained his support for Harris on X (formerly Twitter). 

"I remain settled in my convictions that life begins at conception, and innocent, unborn life ought to be protected in the womb," McKissic wrote, in part, in a statement. "I remain settled in my conviction that marriage should be defined as uniting together in holy matrimony one man and one woman. The Republican Party has removed the hurdle and difficulty I've had in voting Democrat since 1984 by abandoning their prior commitments on these issues."

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Andrew Harnik/Staff

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.