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The large peach-colored brick building looks more like a school than a church. But at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, up to 9,000 people gather to worship every Sunday. And now they are praying for President Donald Trump.
God’s authority
– I try not to think so much about his private life, but I respect him as my president. He has his authority from God, says a young woman in the congregation who prefers not to say his name.
– Does that mean you think God has put it there?
– He’s empowered by God, yes. He is ready to make decisions for us.
THE HAND OF GOD: Donald Trump has received his authority from God, according to evangelical Christians
Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP
– And that does not mean that we agree with everything he says, or with how he behaves. But we support what he represents: the fight for religious and moral values and against abortion, adds the crony.
Evangelical Christians
One in four Americans considers themselves to be so-called evangelical Christians.
They belong to different Protestant denominations, are concerned with personal faith, revival, and mission, and are often called Christian conservatives.
In the last election, 85 percent of evangelical Christians in the United States voted for Donald Trump. And most people will do it again, according to the Pew Research Center.
– The truth is that he won an election, and not that he is ordained by God.
– But there is a shorter path between faith and politics in the United States. So we get this notion that God rules behind the scenes, explains Terje Hegertun at MF University College. This school was formerly called the Congregational Faculty of Theology.
GOD IN THE BACKGROUND: Terje Hegertun is a professor of theology, and even Pentecostal.
Photo: Faculty of Sciences of the MF University
He believes that the idea that God is behind a particular candidate makes it difficult to criticize him.
– Rewrite, apologize and explain things that according to normal Christian standards are not good, says the teacher. He himself belongs to the Pentecostal movement.
As the best vice president
On Thursday night, Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris for a televised debate in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mike Pence himself belongs to a large revival-oriented church in the state of Indiana. At the Lynchburg Baptist Church, the vice president is perceived as one of their own.
POPULAR MAN: Vice President Mike Pence has a big star at Christian Liberty University.
Photo: JONATHAN DRAKE / Reuters
– This administration has done much more for us Christians than, for example, what Barack Obama did, says Sam Wagner. The 19-year-old will vote in his first presidential election, and his vote will go to Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
The NRK meetings in Lynchburg, Virginia make no secret that they like the vice president more than they like the president. But they support both of them.
According to Pence, Pence is “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” and also a fierce opponent of abortion. He has been an important man for the strong support of Donald Trump among conservative Christians.
Liberty University
Across the street from the Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is Liberty University, a kind of stronghold of the Christian right in the United States. Here, Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech to graduate students last year.
CORE VALUES: Sam Wagner is 19, personally a Christian, and will be voting for the first time.
Photo: Tove Bjørgaas
– It is the fight against abortion and the fight for religious freedom that decides the choice for me, continues Sam Wagner. Study sports at Liberty.
– I have a lot to blame on how Donald Trump lives his life, but it is core values that decide. We are one nation, under God, says Sam.
Not Jesus who is president
Many Christians on the political right in the United States are more pleased with the appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices under Donald Trump, and the nomination of a third. The hope is that it will make the abortion ban possible again.
- Listen to the latest episode of the War and Peace in America podcast
IN AMERICA: The War and Peace podcast follows the US election campaign.
But how can so many believers simultaneously cast their vote for a president who violates several of the ten commandments of the Bible?
Kim of Lynchburg Baptist Church contributes this explanation in the latest episode of the America’s War and Peace podcast series:
– It is not Jesus who is our president. But Jesus has forgiven Donald Trump, just as He has forgiven us all. Nobody is perfect!
