Support for President Donald Trump has been consistently strong among evangelicals, and some profess to have been the best friend Christians have had in the White House.
On the first Sunday since a crowd of supporters who wanted to overthrow the election of President-elect Joe Biden stormed the U.S. Capitol and killed five people, including a police officer, messages from the pulpits of Christian leaders who have given support for Trump was as disparate as the views of the nation’s citizens.
They ranged from recitations of rejected conspiracy theories about who was responsible, to calls for healing and following Jesus Christ instead of anyone, to sermons that made no mention of Wednesday’s chaos and what it means to in the future.
Here is a look at what some preached to their flocks:
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OWENSBORO, Kentucky
Brian Gibson, pastor and founder of his Church, spoke with his Christian congregation and online viewers about his bus tour of the United States last month to speak with supporters of President Trump.
“I stand up and represent Jesus Christ of Nazareth and preach to defend the First Amendment. I intend to keep this nation a free nation. HIS Church, we aim to keep this nation a free nation, ”he said, referring to both the president’s recent ban on social media platforms and restrictions on church assembly during the pandemic.
Gibson was on stage Jan. 5 at a “Prayer to Save America” event, which was declared a combined worship service and a rally for Trump the day before certification in Congress of election votes. Describing the events of the 6th, Gibson questioned the ease with which the Capitol was breached, raising discredited claims. that the antifa supporters were part of the violent crowd.
“So now I know some of them, there have been bad actors and I think there was potentially antifa up there. I think I know more and more that there has been antifa up there, people who have initiated this action. And I also know that some fans of Trump followed his initiative without a doubt, because 2 million people don’t come together without having radicals in the crowd or some simple people in the crowd who can drive anywhere, right? ”he asked.
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SACRAMENTO, California
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the Hispanic National Conference of Christian Leadership who said a prayer at Trump’s inauguration and also advised him, told his congregation Sunday that the United States needs to hear a message from repentance.
“We must all repent, even the church must repent. The American nation will be healed when the American church repents, ”he said to some applause and applause.
“We must repent to make the person who occupies the White House more important than the person who occupies our hearts. We must repent to allow the donkey and the elephant to share what the Lamb died on the cross, “Rodriguez said.” We must repent to vote for people who have policies contrary to the word God and the spirit of the living God. ”
Rodriguez, the new pastor of the new season, said he prayed for a season of “instead of” – “Instead of destroying properties, building altars. Instead of confrontation, conversations …. instead of many for fear, a nation under God. ”
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SAINT ANTHONY
The Rev. John Hagee of Cornerstone Church, a staunch supporter of Trump, did not name the president by name, but criticized the assault on Congress for what he called “a rebellious crowd.”
“The Secret Service had to escort the U.S. vice president to security outside the Capitol building. Shots were fired. Tear gas was deployed at the Capitol roundabout. People were killed. “Assaulting the law was not patriotism, it was anarchy,” Hagee said.
His words drew warm applause from the crowd at his megastock, but soon after they gave a standing ovation to Hagee as he gathered support for law enforcement: “This is what happens when you hit the police. This that’s what happens when you fire the police. ”
“This is what happens when a police officer is seen shooting and belittling his sacrifice to the public,” he continued. “Wake up, America! America and democracy cannot function without the rule of law. Let’s get the blue back. ”
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APOPKA, Florida
Paula White-Cain, a longtime spiritual adviser to Trump and a former faith adviser in her White House, made a subtle allusion to the insurrection before her Sunday sermon.
Calling the nation “deeply divided,” White-Cain condemned “illegality” and added that “my hope never rests on any person, no man. My hope is in Jesus Christ.”
White, who offered a post-election prayer service in which he called for “angelic reinforcement” to help achieve victory, also reaffirmed his commitment to the First Amendment, echoing warnings from some conservatives this week. that their freedom of speech was threatened.
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COEUR, D’ALENE, Idaho
The Rev. Tim Remington, the conservative Christian pastor at The Altar Church, avoided specific references to Trump and the attack on the Capitol, but offered plenty of politically charged warnings.
“The next two weeks are probably the two most important weeks in American history,” said Remington, who in the spring led face-to-face services challenging a stay-at-home order issued by the governor. “I pray that the Lord’s army is ready.”
He especially addressed the media to criticize them.
“I repeat the news in the name of Jesus,” Remington said. “We demand an end to this false rubbish. … They are lies, communism, socialism. I don’t know how we’ve endured it for so long. ”
And without going into details, he said America “is not looking for the truth.”
“Let them suppress another person’s opinion: it’s wrong, it’s unconstitutional,” he said. “God have mercy.”
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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio
The Rev. Darrell Scott, the black senior pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center, did not mention the events in Washington.
Scott, one of the first supporters of the 2016 Trump campaign who worked with the administration on urban and prison issues, praised the administration as “probably the most proactive administration in relation to urban America and the community-based in the faith of my life ”.
But there was no talk of the president Sunday in a live broadcast service titled “What God Has for Me,” in which Scott focused on encouraging congregants to recognize God’s involvement in their lives.
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Associated Press reporters Sally Stapleton, Luis Andres Henao and Gary Fields contributed to this report.
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