The majority of Pennsylvania’s evangelical community has already decided on its ballot for the US elections and, although no candidate’s name resonates within their churches, parishioners know that when pastors talk about the importance of voting, They really mean: do it for Trump.
“It is not allowed to ask for a vote for any candidate or party, but absolutely everyone here is aware of who defends the word of God and the values of the Bible, and who does not,” a member of the Ephrata Community Church explains to EFE. very close to Lancaster (Pennsylvania), which preferred not to identify itself.
In Lancaster County, to the southeast of this ‘hinge state’ that with its 19 electoral votes and great political division is presented as crucial for the presidential elections, there are mainly white families spread across wealthy rural areas and an incipient Latino community.
According to the renowned Pew Research Center, in Pennsylvania currently one in two people defines themselves as Protestant Christians in its different variants and half of the population considers that God has a ‘very important’ role in their lives.
Orientation
This is the side of the wildest Pennsylvania, far removed in every way from the urban environments of Fildaelfia and Pittsburgh; Here the churches serve as the epicenter of their neighbors’ routine to the point that any political orientation of the pastors can have a major impact on their votes.
“I can assure you that the vast majority of the evangelical Christian church today demands that Donald Trump return,” Felipe Fana, pastor of the La Senda Missionary Church in Reading (Pennsylvania) and president of the Association of Evangelical Pastors of this church, bluntly assures EFE. locality.
He considers that the priorities of the evangelical community in Pennsylvania to opt for the Republican magnate are his opposition to the right to abortion – although Trump’s position is ambiguous on the matter – and his commitment to controlling speeches that, according to him, induce sex changes. in young people “contrary to what is natural and instituted by God.”
Rise of extremism
At the same time that the majority of evangelical communities close ranks with the former president, in Pennsylvania – as in the rest of the US – a movement called nationalist Christianity and a current called the New Reformation has spread in recent years. Apostolic (NAR, in English).
It is a theological conception of a “Christocentric” nature, with members who have risen even to Trump’s immediate entourage, and which advocates a spiritual war that culminates with Christian dominance over all aspects of society and blurs the separation between Church and State.
Although he does not clarify whether he is affiliated with the NAR current, the pastor of the Threshold Church of Lancaster, Josh Tarnowski, does not show the slightest inclination to enter politics in his sermons: “We tell every demonic government system that thinks it has control over us, that his time is coming to an end,” he said last Sunday to his parishioners.
And when asked by EFE who he is referring to, he does not name anyone but makes it clear: “There is a party that wants to end the borders that have been created by God (…) We do not allow children to vote or drive, but we do allow them to change sex “It doesn’t make any sense,” he says, again alluding to the ‘trans issue’ so dear to Republicans.
black evangelical churches
However, the evident support of the evangelical communities for Trump in Pennsylvania has a substantial ‘but’. That of those known as black churches, with roots eminently in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where Kamala Harris has a larger niche of voters.
Founded and led by African-American reverends, and with a past linked to struggles against social injustice, they have become so involved in the Democratic campaign that they even participate in door-to-door voter recruitment initiatives, remembering that opting for Trump would mean a setback in their rights. .
The Reverend Gregory Edwards, of the black church collective POWER Interfaith, explains to EFE that he is clear about his support for Harris even on issues such as abortion: “Above all, I empathize with the women who choose this option. My people, for many years, did not have power over their own bodies either. We know very well what it is like to not let you make your own decisions.”
Meanwhile, away from the electoral tension, from the temple of the Evangelical Congregational Church of Lancaster they call for moderation and for the pastors to remain equanimous because, once the elections are over, “the parishioners, whether Democrats or Republicans, must continue to coexist at peace”.
Lancaster / EFE
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