With the presidential election now a week away, polls suggest Trump is making big gains with black men, who are ignoring Democrats’ claims he is racist, and with Hispanic voters who are aware of his plans to deport illegal aliens if he wins the White House.
Even modest single-digit improvements with blacks and Hispanics could help Trump a lot, especially in battleground states, but an election night victory in one week will likely be decided by white Evangelicals who chose Trump over Hillary Clinton 80%-16% in 2016.
A similar number voted for Trump again in 2020, according to exit polling.
“If you're not voting, you're not casting an effective vote against the candidate who's going to do, by far, the most harm,” Robert Gagnon, a theology professor, says of an election night victory by Kamala Harris.
The “prime issue” for every voter, Gagnon told American Family Radio, is White House policy and U.S. Supreme Court appointments.
“Because those policies, expressed in executive orders and legislation, and in court appointments,” he stressed, “will carry on a legacy far beyond the tenure of that political candidate.”
Gagnon, who teaches New Testament classes at Houston Baptist University, is no apologist for Trump’s personal behavior. Like every other voter, Gagnon has witnessed the national media remind the public about Trump’s sexual past, such as his reported affair with porn star Stormy Daniels that came out in 2018.
In the AFR interview, Gagnon reminded the “Today’s Issues” program that Harris dated then-Mayor Willie Brown to boost her career in California politics.
Harris was 29 years old at the time and Brown was 60.
“She slept around with Willie Brown for political gain for years,” Gagnon says, “And then, of course, when that was no longer profitable for her, she left for other men.”
Back in 2016, The Washington Post dropped a timely “October surprise” to hurt Trump one month before Election Day. The newspaper got its hands on an NBC video, from 2005, in which Trump was talking lewdly about women in a private conversation.
Last week, in a similar last-minute political attack, a former swimsuit model told The Guardian newspaper Trump groped her in 1993. The woman, Stacey Williams, said she is not connected to the Harris-Walz campaign but she made the allegation in a Zoom call organized by “Survivors for Kamala.”
Another “October surprise” could come before November 5, the Trump campaign has stated publicly.
'God is giving you a way out'
In an urgent-sounding X post written to Christians, Gagnon all but pleaded with them to consider what a Harris-Walz administration would do to the culture and to the Church.
Among his dire predictions, Gagnon warns doctors and nurses will be forced to participate in abortions to keep federal funding. Female athletes will be forced to shower with men under Title IX regulations. More pro-life protesters will be jailed by the Justice Department, he said, and "hate speech" will likely be prosecuted.
Gagnon also predicts Christian schools could be targeted, and lose their accreditation, if they refuse to affirm non-discrimination policies for homosexuals and transgenders.
“God is giving you a way out, through casting an effective against Harris/Walz by voting for Trump/Vance,” Gagnon writes. “If you don't take it, you are opposing God's help in a misguided view that God accomplishes his purposes only through pure candidates.”
A plea for Christians to get out and vote also came from Abraham Hamilton III, an attorney and American Family Radio show host. Every person alive right now, he told the “Today’s Issues” program, was appointed by God to be alive at this moment in human history.
As a Christian living right now, Hamilton reasoned, it is your responsibility to exercise the right to vote to protect your freedom to live out your faith.
“The most important thing for a Christian is executing the Great Commission,” he said. “The second most important thing, in our particular context, is keeping the freedoms available to do the most important thing.”
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comments from Abraham Hamilton III.
American Family Radio is a division of the American Family Association, the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
