The 2024 intersection of faith and politics is on display, from a messianic-like video which claims, “God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’ so God gave us Trump,” to some comparing the former president to Jesus Christ.
“Believe that the man that can help this nation – the one man that was ridiculed, destroyed as – Jesus. Trump can come back and save the American dream for all,” Academy Award winner Jon Voight said in a video earlier this year.
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When President Trump entered the scene in 2016, he was not a regular churchgoer, nor was he seen as a person of deep faith. Now, eight years later, he is incorporating religion into his re-election bid for the White House.
“We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and back into what will be again a great nation,” Trump said in one video online.
Jackson Laymeyer heads Pastors4Trump – a group supporting the former president.
“The religious themes I think are very appropriate because this is a very spiritual battle,” Laymeyer told CBN News.
Leading up to Easter, Trump began promoting the sale of the “God Bless the USA” Bible.
“This Bible is the King James version and also includes our founding father documents,” Trump said in a promotional video. “I want to have a lot of people have it. You have to have it for your heart, for your soul.”
Laymeyer applauds the message. “How in the world could pastors and Christians complain about the potential president of the United States encouraging Americans to read the Bible? That’s what all of us pastors want,” he said.
On the other side, President Biden who is a Roman Catholic comes off much more muted on religion. His recent move, however, to make a sign of the cross at a Florida abortion rally has come under fire.
“Making the sign of the cross is one of the most profound gestures a Catholic can make in showing reverence for Christ’s death on the cross and belief in the Holy Trinity as we sign ourselves in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” said Bishop Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, IL. “To misuse this sacred gesture is to make a mockery of our Catholic faith.”
The backlash comes at a time when the president’s disapproval rating among Catholics stands at 64%, an all-time high according to a recent Pew Research poll. Wear said the Biden camp also has a strategy to reach voters of faith.
“They will have folks on their campaign doing religious outreach,” said Wear. “I think he’s making an appeal on character. He’s making an appeal on decency. He’s going to be focused on the issue of democracy and some of the legal issues that his opponent has.”
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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