Televangelist Pastor George Pearsons claimed during a Wednesday evening broadcast covering the election that God was unhappy with what was happening, suggesting that God was specifically upset over President Donald Trump's losses in key battleground states.
Pearsons, who is the son-in-law of televangelist Kenneth Copeland and the senior pastor of Eagle Mountain International Church in Texas, was speaking during a broadcast by the Victory Channel. Right Wing Watch first reported Pearsons remarks.
"'I'm not happy with what you're doing to my nation, and I'm not happy about what you're doing to my man'—now he's speaking about Mr. Trump right there. 'He has yielded to me. He's endeavored to follow my word. And I am not happy with this that is going on right now,'" Pearsons said, noting that he was speaking on behalf of God.
"'Watch me work,'" the pastor said God had declared.
"Lord, we're gonna see you work," Pearsons said in response to God. "We're gonna see you work in the midst of this. And we invoke the name of Jesus and take authority over the powers and the principalities and the spirit of communism that is trying to infiltrate, overtake, and attack this nation right now."
Newsweek reached out to Pearsons' church for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Trump's personal spiritual adviser Pastor Paula White led an impassioned prayer service on Tuesday in a bid to secure Trump's re-election. White denounced what she described as the "demonic confederacies that are attempting to steal the election from Trump."
White evangelical Christians have been a key base of support since Trump's 2016 campaign, when about 80 percent backed his election. Exit polling conducted by the Edison Research for the National Election Pool suggested that the president's support from the community had declined somewhat over the past four years, to 75 percent.
Although the vast majority of white evangelicals may support Trump, views among America's broader Christian community are split. Polling conducted by the Pew Research Center from September 30 to October 5 showed that 41 percent of Protestant Christians backed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden while 54 percent supported Trump. Among American Catholics, a slim majority (51 percent) supported Biden and 44 percent backed Trump.
Meanwhile, many Christians have been staunchly opposed to Trump and his administration. The organization Faithful America, which describes itself as the largest online Christian community fighting for social justice, launched a petition at the end of October rejecting "the hatred and discrimination of the current administration." More than 13,800 Christians have signed the petition as of the time of writing.
"As Christians, we are called to love God and love our neighbor with everything we do, including on Election Day, Nathan Empsall, Faithful America's campaigns director who is an Episcopal priest, told Newsweek in a Monday email. "That means using our ballots to stand for the values Jesus taught: Love, justice, dignity, and empathy—basic Christian values that Donald Trump regards as weakness," Empsall said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jason Lemon is a Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason's reporting focused on ... Read more
