"I am the chosen one!" As often, Donald Trump's jokes are borrowed from what he really thinks. In saying these few words this summer, the President of the United States made a strong appeal to a community he particularly cherishes: the Evangelicals.
These strict Protestants attached to the strict application of the Bible represent a quarter of the country's population. And the American president owes his election in part to their support, at least to that of the white evangelicals, largely in the majority: the latter voted more than 80% for the billionaire in 2016.
"We believe it was God who placed President Trump here," assures France 24 June Knight, a 100% evangelical behind the Republican, who came to express his fervor in front of the White House on a Saturday in September. "In 2016, he appeared to us through the media. He said to the evangelicals: 'I need you to win. So please vote for me and I will fight for you. ' So we elected him. And in 2020, we will elect him again! "
"We are at war for the soul of this nation"
June Knight is so loyal to Donald Trump that she crisscrossed the country in 2017 to spread her slogan "Make America Great Again". Originally from Tennessee, she pursued a career in communication and created an online religious media. This 50-year-old with a southern accent now lives in Washington and has become a White House correspondent ... in the midst of journalists whom she considers as hawkers of "fake news". She accepts her choice firmly: "People tell us: 'But why do you vote for him when you can see all the crazy things he does?' The truth is that we trust God. "
That Saturday in front of the White House, American flag around the shoulders and microphone in hand, she implores the president to "not give in to the agenda of LGBT (lesbians, gays, bi, trans)", "an acronym for the sin". A handful of other evangelicals joined her to pray and demonstrate in the Washingtonian heat of this early fall. "We are at war for the soul of this nation," she said.
For June Knight as for many other evangelicals, Donald Trump's societal conservatism and his personal opposition to abortion (he was not always against) are key qualities. The President has kept his promises to date by appointing 46 appeals court judges and 112 district conservative judges. Above all, it is at the origin of the tilting to the right of the Supreme Court, with the appointment of judges Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, anti-abortion Christians. The hope of the "pro-life" is to see one day the jurisprudence "Roe v. Wade", which legalized abortion in 1973, overturned.
"We have a responsibility to protect life"
"Obviously our belief system influences our vote," admits Jonathan Falwell, a star pastor in the evangelical world, interviewed by France 24 at the end of August in his giant church in Lynchburg, Virginia. The theme of his sermon that day: "You will love your neighbor as yourself." "We firmly believe that every life is precious in the eyes of God. So for us, abortion is a huge problem," he continues. "The Bible tells us that even before we are born, God knows us. "He was the one who trained us in the womb. So we have a duty and a responsibility to protect life. And that makes a key difference in how we vote."
Lynchburg, a town of 75,000 people at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountain range, is one of the most powerful evangelical strongholds in the country. The Falwell family - Father Jerry, a famous televangelist and conservative activist who died in 2007, and sons Jerry Jr and Jonathan - has reigned there since the 1960s. Jerry Jr, president of Liberty University, an evangelical campus that hosts nearly 15,000 is one of the loudest supporters of Donald Trump. "The evangelicals have found their dream president," he said in 2017. The billionaire gave several speeches at the university which sells t-shirts and caps associating his name with that of Liberty.
Our visit to Lynchurg left us with a taste for unfinished business. Jerry Falwell Jr did not respond to interview requests from France 24 and, according to a recent Politico investigation, he holds his university in an iron fist, preventing his employees from speaking to journalists without his consent. The students, initially open to discussion, flee as soon as the subject of the report - the evangelicals' support for Donald Trump - is raised. Jonathan Falwell, the pastor, agreed to be interviewed, provided he did not speak too much about politics and, above all, warned his press secretary not to say the word "Trump". Should we see it as a form of embarrassment?
Religious ideal vs political reality
For June Knight, the evangelicals are not yet completely "out of the closet" about the support for this controversial president. "The Church has not been sufficiently behind it for fear of the media," she said. But this distance is perhaps also linked to the sulphurous image of Donald Trump: insults, lies, divorces, accusations of sexual assault or of relations with pornstars ...
The support of white evangelicals to the 45th president, if he remains very strong, has somewhat eroded over time. A Pew poll of March 2019 showed that they were only 69% more approving his action against 78% during the first days of his mandate. Another study, published by Fox News in October, shows the same trend. In the aftermath of his impeachment in the House of Representatives, the powerful evangelical magazine Christianity Today even called for his removal from the Senate, calling him "morally lost".
Certain decisions, such as the separation of migrant families on the Mexican border or the recent withdrawal from Syria which put the Christian minorities at risk, were very badly received by the evangelical community. Many are therefore torn between their religious ideal and political reality. But if the billionaire is far from checking all the boxes in their hearts, he has for him the card "pro-life", paramount.
The Dobbins family, questioned by our sister from France 24 Fanny Allard in Kentucky, in October, admits to disagreeing with "a lot about the current president". "No political party represents the complete evangelical convictions. Some claim to do so, but it is false," said the couple, who have three children schooling at home. Becky Dobbins, the mother, refuses to reveal who she voted for in 2016. But she explains her thinking like this: if she can save "just one life" with her vote, then it's worth it. Abortion, again, is the key issue. "I would love to see more candidates inclined to be less pro-abortion," she said. If that were the case, she would even be voted on the left: "I love Joe Biden (the favorite of the Democratic primaries, editor's note), I think he's someone remarkable. If he could just say: ' I will not push in favor of abortions', I would think very hard to vote for him. "
Anti-Trump evangelicals too
Support for Donald Trump, however mixed, is unacceptable to a small portion of these Christians. So much so that the name "evangelical" has become too heavy to carry because too connoted. "It's a word now associated with the far right in politics," said Tony Campolo, an 84-year-old pastor who once advised Bill Clinton. White evangelicals are known across America as anti-feminists, opposed to gay rights, anti-environment, pro-war and opposed to universal health insurance. This does not suit us. "
Tony Campolo therefore prefers the name "Red Letter Christians", a movement he co-founded with his friend Shane Claiborne. "Many Bibles, here in the United States, display the words of Jesus printed in red, he explains to France 24. We want to remain faithful to the teachings of Jesus. We have the same theological beliefs as the evangelicals but we do not 'not join their social agenda. "
The two men meet regularly in the radio studio of a university in Philadelphia to record podcasts and publicize their movement. Shane Claiborne, an activist who worked with Mother Theresa in India and who founded a community in a difficult neighborhood in Philadelphia, had his creed printed on his t-shirt: "Live as if Jesus really meant what he said . " "It is impossible to love your neighbor as yourself if you ignore the policies that affect the lives of others, such as weapons or immigration laws," he said.
New generation
Shane Claiborne is particularly upset against the pro-Trump evangelicals who tarnish "the reputation of Christianity". "We have a precedent: Judas betrayed Jesus for a few coins. Some people agreed to small political calculations and moral compromises in order to see anti-abortion judges appointed. They gave up almost all their values for the opportunity to gain ground on abortion. " The irony being, according to him, that "one can say that one is pro-life in the United States while being pro-weapons and pro-death penalty". On the contrary, he calls for a movement "concerned with life from the womb to the tomb". Reverse Roe v. Wade would be counterproductive, he said.
Although a minority within their religion in the United States, the two men do not give up hope. "A third of the evangelicals are not white and, among them, 70% did not vote for Donald Trump," said Shane Claiborne. "There is a big difference between older white evangelicals and younger white evangelicals who tend to be more progressive," adds Tony Campolo. "Even in a place like Liberty University." In fact, according to a study by the Voter Study Group in 2019, only six out of 10 young white evangelicals have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump, compared to 80% of those over 45. Tony Campolo is therefore ready to pass the torch calmly: "This new generation will replace the old."
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