A former evangelical leader and megachurch pastor who lately left Christianity said the evangelical embrace of President Trump represents God’s “indictment” of the American church.
Joshua Harris, 44, told Axios that the support that Trump receives from a majority of evangelicals is “incredibly damaging to the Gospel and to the church.”
In his first interview since publicly abandoning his faith and expressing regret for his past teachings, Harris explained he is not optimistic that Trump’s presidency is going to help the cause of evangelicals.
“I don’t think it’s going to end well,” Harris predicted. “And I think, you know, you look back at the Old Testament and the relationship between the prophets and really bad leaders and kings, and oftentimes it was, it’s not something you unwind because it’s, it’s actually in the Scriptures presented as God’s judgment on the false religion of the day.”
He claimed God may have given the United States a leader like Trump as a form of divine judgment.
“To have a leader like Trump I think is in itself part of the indictment, that this is the leader that you want and maybe deserve,” he said. “That represents a lot of who you are.”
Asked about if he sees a connection between the current political climate and fundamentalism, Harris said that fear can be easily manipulated by those in politics.
“The more chaotic the world is, the more people want someone to tell them what to do. And when people are afraid, they latch on to people who say, ‘I have the answers,’” he said.
Harris rose to prominence at a young age as the author of a number of books that turned out to be popular in evangelical denominations. He became the head pastor of the enormous Covenant Life Church in Maryland, which at its peak saw 4,000 worshipers every Sunday, but left the church in 2015 following a child abuse scandal.
He rattled the evangelicals in July when he announced in an Instagram post that he had “ex-communicated [him]self” from his faith and was divorcing his wife.
In the post he said that he had “undergone a massive shift” in his faith.
[Opinion: Famous Christian departees have lost their sense of truth]
“I have lived in repentance for the past several years — repenting of my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting to name a few,” Harris wrote. “But I specifically want to add to this list now: to the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality.”
A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that about 77% of evangelicals approve of Trump’s performance as president compared to about 41% overall.
Some Christians questioned Trump’s religion during the 2016 presidential campaign after he said he doesn’t think he has ever asked for God’s forgiveness and referred to Holy Communion as “my little wine” and “my little cracker.”
