EEW Magazine Online // Faith & Politics

Donald Trump said during an Ohio stump speech that Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is “against God” and will “hurt God” if elected president in November.

The president’s reelection campaign is currently courting religious voters in part by portraying Democrats as a threat to religious freedom.

Trump, who was in Ohio to speak about the economy, tour a Whirlpool manufacturing plant, participate in a roundtable event with his supporters and attend a fundraising committee reception in the evening, said Biden would, “Take away your guns, your second amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy – our kind of energy.”

These divisive claims are not new.

Last month during an event outside Atlanta hosted by the Trump campaign’s evangelical outreach effort, Christian surrogates touted the president’s record on advancing devout conservatives’ priorities while casting Democrats as captive to an anti-religious agenda. Two speakers singled out restrictions on singing in church imposed by California’s Democratic governor to help stem the spread of the virus as an example of this anti-religious agenda.

White House faith adviser Paula White-Cain appealed to Christians to trust the president over “a very deceptive media.” White-Cain, a fixture in Trump’s circle of religious conservative advisers, asserted that lifelong Roman Catholic Biden was helping liberals to silence people of faith.

Biden is “a Trojan horse for a very radical left agenda that is behind him that wants to take down our churches,” White-Cain, often described as Trump’s personal pastor, said during an event that tied religion to love of country with the title “Praise, Prayer, and Patriotism.”

Biden’s campaign has built a religious outreach effort of its own that’s seen as more robust than that of 2016’s Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. It is even hoping that his long history of personal faith will help him persuade some Christian conservative voters to abandon Trump.

But White-Cain blasted the former vice president for shifting leftward on abortion, an issue that promises to hurt Biden with some religious voters.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University, said Trump has made a “not so subtle” attempt to sour Christian voters on Democrats.

“Trump wants to tap into that very base feeling of ‘white Christianity is under attack,’” Burge said. “It’s all posturing to set up this God gap, where if you’re a Christian — especially a white Christian — the Republican Party is going to protect you.”

The tactic is “not based in any sort of reality,” Burge noted, “because Democrats have not elected atheists or nominated atheists in any systematic way.”

Evangelicals for Trump, a campaign coalition-building effort, hosts three prayer calls weekly, touting the president’s record, with more than 100 convened since the pandemic began. That’s on top of faith-focused calls held by the campaign’s anti-abortion voter outreach effort and online events hosted under the “Faith in America” banner. Vice President Mike Pence — a born-again Christian with a long track record in allying with fellow conservative evangelicals — recently launched a faith-centered tour in Wisconsin.

The GOP’s outreach goes beyond white evangelicals who continue to give Trump favorable marks. The campaign has a separate Catholic voter coalition, and on-the-ground engagement is underway in communities ranging from Jewish to Assyrian to Chaldean. Voter registration, including drives at houses of worship, is a central focus.

Elana Schor of The Associated Press contributed to this report.