President Trump is very popular with American Evangelicals. In all three of his presidential bids, He has won a decisive majority in this demographic. For liberal media, this support has been puzzling. In a recent article, NPR interviewed a North Carolina pastor about Trump and his policies. The reporter was surprised by the pastor’s pragmatic responses.
Chard Harvey, the pastor of Cross Assembly Church in Raleigh, NC, said in a recent sermon. “If I thought the fate of history depended on the 2024 election, I’d be as anxious as you and popping as many pills you are. Fortunately, I don’t believe that stuff.” He added, “My hope is in Jesus, not in the politics.”Scott Detrow, a reporter for NPR, sat down with the pastor for an interview.
He asked, “How much does politics come up in day-to-day conversation when you’re talking to people here when you’re talking to people in the congregation when you’re doing your pastoral work?” The pastor responded,” You know, it’s very interesting. I think an outsider looking into the Evangelical Pentecostal movement would assume that politics plays a huge role in the life of the church. It actually doesn’t. I’d say 1-2% of my conversations are about politics.”
“I think a lot of people are just trying to make ends meet. They’re trying to live their lives,” he replied. “Now, I’ve told our folks this, you know, our church is accused of being a little bit too political, and I said: “You know, the church is not getting more political; politics is getting more spiritual.” He thinks that it is not the churches that talk about politics more, but political figures who make theological claims.
He added, “We’re seeing this infiltration into the political realm of things that used to be the church’s territory: family, human sexuality. Now politics is starting to tackle those spiritual issues.” The Journalist asked him, “How do you think about which candidates you are going to support? Is it through the lens of the issues they support? Is it through how they come across as individuals?”
” What I’ve told our congregation is we look at the platform, not the person. And so you can have some people with some pretty deep moral struggles who are upholding a platform that we support,” Harvey calmly stated. ” And I tell our people, don’t pay as much attention to the struggles — pay attention to the platform. Because here’s what the Bible says: There’s none righteous. No, not one. We’re all messed-up people.”
At this point, the reporter got frustrated. “Let me just ask the direct question about this with Trump. Donald Trump has such a high support from so many Christians around the country, and yet is somebody who lives in a gold tower with his name on it, who crudely insults people and, among other things, is facing criminal charges,” he asked. “And some people just feel like this is not the message, as I understand it, of Christianity…I just don’t understand that?”
“I keep going back to we’re all messed up people. Trump is messed up. Kamala Harris is messed up. Joe Biden has had accusations thrown at him. We’re all messed-up individuals,” he concluded. “And so I think what I keep coming back to is a lot of people seem to think that we’re having a continuous, 24/7 Trump rally in the Evangelical Pentecostal circle. We’re actually not. We’re well aware of his foibles. We’re well aware of where he’s messed up. I think the reason Trump is resonating with Evangelicals is this mess aside that we all know about, the platform he’s supporting, like it or not, is closer aligned to our view of scripture than the other side.”