As election day arrives, Trump and Harris remain deadlocked in numerous polls. Betting odds have consistently had Trump up on Harris since October 6th. Both the Wall Street Journal and CNBC forecast a Trump victory. The final CNN and New York Times / Sierra poll had Trump and Harris in a deadlock. The Harris campaign must be nervous, given Trump was behind Biden by 7.4, and Clinton by 5.6 at the same point in previous election cycles. In a race this close, a thin sliver of independent voters in swing states will determine who declares victory. However, this presumes that dependable client demographics will show up to vote. Democrats hope their coalition of racial grievance mongers, young women who want abortions, and liberals who insist Donald Trump is such “a threat to democracy” that he should be censored, imprisoned, and shot, will return Harris to the White House. Republicans, however, hope record gains with Black and Latino men, working-class Whites, and young men who listen to Joe Rogan and are sick of being insulted for their race and sex, will help make America great again. The worry for Republicans is that young women vote in higher proportions than young men; a trend which has emerged again in early voting. But another, less discussed, prospect is diminishing turnout among consolidated client groups; namely, Christians.
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Harris need not (and has not) pander to Christians for some to decide it is better to stay home than vote Trump. In 2016 and 2020, Trump was advised to pick Mike Pence as his running mate, to ensure his “New York values” didn’t alienate the White Evangelicals who reliably vote Republican. JD Vance replacing Pence represents a number of young men who have returned to the Church in pursuit of the wisdom of tradition. But despite a dedicated Catholic joining Trump on the ticket, prominent Christian commentators have voiced displeasure with what MAGA has to offer. Live Action founder Lila Rose previously said it was “impossible” to support Trump, due to his abortion policy. She has since decided to vote for Trump. Kristan Hawkins, head of Students for Life, has criticised Trump’s abortion stance, saying “what I’ve conveyed to the campaign personally is that this strategy is not a winning strategy”. Editor of The Sentinel, Ben Zeisloft refused to support Trump, saying he wouldn’t vote in swing-state Pennsylvania unless Trump “vows to support equal protection of the laws for preborn babies”.
So the question, as America approaches the home stretch, is: can Christians vote for Trump?
America is an inextricably Christian country. Massachusetts Bay colony governor John Winthrop preached to settler pilgrims that America would be God’s “city on a hill”, where rich and poor alike “might be all knit more nearly together in the Bonds of brotherly affection”. The opening passage of the Declaration of Independence asserts “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”, and, famously, that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The self-evident nature of rights is derivative of them being endowed by God. John Adams said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”, and advised statesmen to “plan and speculate for Liberty”, but recognise that only “Religion and Morality alone” can “establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand”. Although He is not mentioned in the federal Constitution, God is mentioned in every state constitution.
Despite continued decline in religiosity, America enjoys a higher level of Christian conviction than the rest of the liberal West. Half of Americans, and 68% of Christians, told Pew Research in 2020 that the Bible should have at least “some” influence on U.S. laws. So it seems electorally imprudent for Harris to show such contempt for Christians. Under the Biden/Harris administration, the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network monitored the purchase of Bibles as “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators”. FBI whistle-blower Kyle Seraphin alerted the House Judiciary Committee to an FBI-wide memorandum from the Richmond Field Office, which profiled “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as violent extremists. The memorandum instructed agents to infiltrate Catholic churches as a form of “threat mitigation”. It cited an Atlantic article, which said the rosary has been “woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture”. Recently, at a rally in Wisconsin, Harris expelled men who shouted “Jesus is Lord”, telling them, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally.” If the mobile abortion vans outside the DNC hadn’t made it clear, Kamala Harris thinks Bible-believing Christians are unwelcome in her version of America.
This is because Harris’ version of “Freedom” is one of total autonomy from limitations — including the burden of caring for a new-born or unborn baby. Abortion has become a sacrament, a sacred rite, in support of women’s freedom from constraints. As Mary Harrington writes, the “dependency of an unborn baby is less something sacred to be preserved than a threat to something sacred: the mother’s freedom”. Harris’ abortion platform is the most radical possible statement in favour of individual freedom to, as Justice Kennedy wrote in his decision for Planned Parenthood v. Casey, “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life”. If a child interrupts that self-generative definition, then the unexpected mother must be allowed to unburden herself of what could be.
Trump’s stance on abortion is more agnostic. Despite being the first sitting President to attend the March for Life, Trump removed the call for a national abortion ban from the GOP platform. Both Trump and Vance said they would veto a national ban, and leave term limits up to individual states to decide. This is the consequence of the Dobbs decision: when the Supreme Court justices that Trump appointed repealed both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which manufactured a right to an abortion from the Fourteenth Amendment. This is contrary to the constant propaganda that Trump is on the precipice of turning America into The Handmaid’s Tale. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, a biological weapon has sterilised all but a random few women in America, and a Christian theocracy assigns them to be raped and impregnated by the male officials who run the Republic of Gilead. Atwood claims her 1985 novel was “reframed” after the 2016 election, and called the Hulu adaptation “a documentary” of Trump’s America. Last week, she shared a cartoon of women casting off red dresses and bonnets after exiting the polling booth. Confusingly, this implies that women are brood-mares under the current Biden/Harris administration…
To anyone who has had the displeasure of reading Atwood’s novel, you will note a remarkable similarity between her fictional dystopian state and very real Islamic republics in the world today. Atwood, too, acknowledged these parallels: in the week following 9/11, Atwood explained that a 1978 holiday in Afghanistan had inspired the red dresses and bonnets worn by the fertile women of Gilead:
Girls and women we glimpsed on the street wore the chador, the long, pleated garment, with a crocheted grill for the eyes that is more comprehensive than any other Muslim cover-up. At that time, you often saw chic boots and shoes peeking out from the hem. The chador wasn’t obligatory back then; Hindu women didn’t wear it. It was a cultural custom and since I had grown up hearing that you weren’t decently dressed without a girdle and white gloves, I thought I could understand such a thing. I also knew that clothing is a symbol, that all symbols are ambiguous and that this one might signify a fear of women or a desire on the part of women to protect themselves from the gaze of strangers. But it could also mean more negative things, just as the colour red can mean love, blood, life, royalty, good luck – or sin. […]
Would I have written the book if I had never visited Afghanistan? Possibly. Would it have been the same? Unlikely.
Which makes sense, given the Bible — unlike the Quran — nowhere condones rape. Even when revisiting the newspaper clippings she collected for inspiration while writing the book, Atwood likens Catholic cults to being “very Islamic”.
Only recently, when the neoconservative war on terror exhausted the credibility of liberal interventionism, was The Handmaid’s Tale retrofitted to demonise Donald Trump and Christians opposed to abortion. Atwood remains silent on the surrogacy industry, however, which has commodified the bodies of women under the auspices of enabling wealthy Western women and gay couples’ “right to choose”. It seems there are no political gains to be made in criticising an industry which rich Hollywood Democrats like the Kardashians use, despite it taking advantage of trafficking victims and women in active war zones. Best to wear a bonnet and a red dress to a Women’s March instead.
Trump’s position has aroused ire from Christians, who point out the hypocrisy in allowing one state to treat unborn children as inviolable human lives, and a neighbouring other to kill them up to birth. An estimated 1,037,000 were administered in 2023 — an increase from 2022. 17 states have restricted or banned abortions before the first trimester, previously protected by Roe, since the Dobbs decision. Inversely, 9 states have no limits whatsoever on when an abortion can be sought. Over 120,000 abortions have been prevented in the states with restrictions. However, over 10% of women travel out of state for an abortion, and some circumvent restrictions by procuring and waiting to take abortifacients after the legal term-limit. The majority of abortions now take place using these pills — either in a clinic, or at home, where complications can be lethal. However, the alternative is Harris: whose administration employed all manner of perverts and trans activists, hosted Pride at the White House, and will not support any restrictions on abortion.
The issue for Christians, then, is not whether to vote for Trump or Harris; rather, whether to vote for Trump when his first presidency failed to prevent the loss of unborn lives. Trump has also promised to mandate IVF treatment be paid for via health insurance or the government. After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the millions of embryos in cryogenic storage, awaiting implantation, are human lives worthy of equal protection, Trump took to Truth Social to condemn the judgement. Republicans such as Ted Cruz and, recently, Tulsi Gabbard have touted IVF as a pro-life measure. Elon Musk has personally used IVF (and surrogates) to have 12 children — doing his best to prevent the population collapse he frequently expresses concern about. However, campaigners like Katy Faust point out that it results in the destruction of more fertilised embryos than abortion. On this issue, there is no difference between Trump and Harris.
Nor is there on gay marriage. Trump removed opposition to same-sex weddings from the GOP platform too. Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told the crowd at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, “you’re free to marry who you want”. Though Trump has proposed a nationwide ban on transgender hormone treatments and surgeries for minors, he stipulates the ban will only affect those “without parental consent”. Despite his defence of women’s sports, Christians will be disappointed by Trump’s unwillingness to articulate and enforce a complementarian vision of sex differences.
One issue which divides even Christians is immigration. Pope Francis said “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies”, and instructed Catholics that “Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote[.] You must choose the lesser evil.” But his Holiness makes a false conflation between abortion and deportation, here, because returning an illegal immigrant to their country of origin is not a death sentence. If immigration truly is enriching to the United States, then it would be ludicrous to suggest that the countries immigrants come from are uninhabitable. At least 10 million illegal aliens crossed the Southern Border during the Biden/Harris administration. These illegal entrants cost law-abiding tax-paying Americans $150 billion in 2023. Thousands are convicted murderers, who have killed American children: including eleven year-old Aiden Clark, twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, and the four- and two-year-old Ubaldo-Moreno children. Trump’s plan to deport en masse these foreign criminals would simply be keeping God’s Commandment. While the Old Testament and New encourage us to welcome strangers, St Paul also advised us to obey the laws of the land we reside in. It is just and prudent for Trump to enforce those laws at the Southern Border.
Israel may be another sticking issue for Christians. For a number of Evangelicals, Jews are already marked for salvation, despite refusing to recognise the divinity of Christ. This philosophy of dispensationalism, and a shared Abrahamic ancestry, means a majority of Christians view Israel and the Jewish people favourably. Unfortunately, this good feeling is not reciprocated by many Jews, when polled.
Harris has deployed a duplicitous strategy of targeting ads promising she “will not be silent” on “suffering” in Gaza at Muslims in Michigan, and ads where she says “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” targeting Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. In July, she told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “It is time for this war to end.” Netanyahu ignored her, and went on to eliminate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, and detonated the pagers of thousands of Hezbollah members.
Trump is much more consistent. During his first presidency, Trump relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He supported Israel in killing Sinwar. He has vowed to “remove the jihadist sympathizers and Jew haters…. who do nothing to help our country”. Trump has also accused Joe Biden of insufficiently supporting the IDF’s efforts to destroy Hamas. In the debate with President Biden, Trump said,
He said the only one that wants to keep going is Hamas. Actually, Israel is the one, and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He [Biden] doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian; but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one.
No wonder the Israel Democracy Institute found 72% of Jewish Israelis polled thought a Trump presidency would provide better prospects for their country. As Senator Bernie Sanders lamented, “it is no wonder Netanyahu prefers to have Donald Trump in office”. If Christians want the Holy Land under the more respectful stewardship of the Israeli government, rather than have religious sites fall into the hands of Hamas, then Trump is the safer candidate.
What is apparent to Christians across America is that Trump is an imperfect candidate. He has committed adultery, does not attend regular Church services, and has softened the GOP’s platform on gay marriage, IVF, and abortion. Why should Christians not simply renounce the franchise this time, and render unto Caesar all concerns about worldly affairs? Millions of Christians are expected to do such a thing.
As Christians, we are obliged to speak the truth, in love. Denominations may differ, but as a Catholic, I know love is a mix of deeds and intentions — faith as well as works. We endeavour to assist in reducing the amount of unjust suffering in the world, so that no innocent life is subjected to the same torturous fate as our Lord on the cross. We are obliged not to pass by the suffering Samaritan on the road. We treat every innocent life as having an innate dignity, being made in the image of God, which warrants preserving. We must take what actions we can, however incremental, to ensure evil powers and principalities cannot claim the world for their own.
A Harris administration is guaranteed to continue the on-demand abortions, persecution of pro-life activists, and mutilation of abused, confused children we have seen for the last four years. For all Trump’s flaws and embellishments, he does get issues — from immigration, to economics, to crime — correct. On abortion, where he provides an uncomfortable compromise, Trump presents an opportunity for Christians to make gains in the coming years. He keeps Christians as counsel, and lends a listening ear to those who bring their concerns before him. This would explain why Trump has posted the prayer to St Michael, and celebrated the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this year. Or perhaps, as he told Elon Musk, his near-miss with a bullet on July 13 has made him “more of a believer”.
Beyond Trump, voting down-ballot to deliver a slate of Republican governors will also make it more likely that his returning abortion back to the states results in more stringent laws which protect unborn lives. Republican congressmen and senators would help prevent further incursions on the First Amendment, like implementing the “buffer zones” which criminalize silent prayer near abortion clinics in Britain. And in appointing JD Vance as heir apparent to the America First agenda, Trump has ensured a Christian is lined up to lead the United States for a further eight years.
In 2016, Trump won by a narrow margin of 80,000 votes in key swing states. In 2020, despite record voter turnout, the margin of victory fell to just 44,000 votes. Christians in America could deliver four-to-twelve years of sympathetic governance this November 5th. If only they show up, and vote with their conscience.
