Despite being rebuked by Pastor Donnie Swaggart for endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to become the next president of the United States, Bishop John Drew Sheard, presiding bishop and chief apostle of the Church of God in Christ, defiantly anointed her with prayer before his congregation Sunday after declaring, “I believe we have the victory.”
“I believe we have the victory,” Sheard said as he invited other ministers to join him in anointing Harris during his 11:30 a.m. service at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit, Michigan, one of seven swing states.
“We’re going to pray for our sister. We’re believing that God is going to do what we’ve been praying for. And dear God, we thank you now. We thank you for our sister. We thank you for how you have lifted her up. Now we asking [sic] that you will touch her. Let your power be made manifest. We come against the enemy on every hand, and we claim the victory,” Sheard, who is married to famed gospel singer, Karen Clark Sheard, prayed.
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“Victory is ours, oh God. We thank you for this sister. We’re asking that you anoint her afresh. Keep her, oh God, in the center of your will. And God, we will thank you on Tuesday,” he continued as Harris lifted her hands during the prayer and appeared to pray along as he anointed her.
“We will thank you on Wednesday. We’ll thank you on Thursday. We’ll thank you. We’ll say that you did it, oh God, and it is so, in Jesus’ name,” he ended.
Sheard’s full-throated anointing of Harris comes weeks after Swaggart, who supports former President Donald Trump, delivered a scathing rebuke of the black church, including his denomination, which boasts more than 6 million members, for supporting Harris.
“When the largest African American Pentecostal denomination, when that leader stands up and said I endorse that woman, he was saying: I endorse murder, I endorse homosexuality, I endorse lesbianism, I endorse transgenderism, I endorse every evil that Hell could prosper or bring up to [be] right. That’s wrong, folks,” Swaggart lamented to members of the Family Worship Center Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father, Jimmy Swaggart, remains senior leader.
“The black church votes predominantly for the party that is anti-God. What’s going on here? What’s going on?” he asked.
Swaggart suggested that some black Christians don’t like it when he or his ministry publicly discuss the support Democrats have from black churches, but it needs to be discussed because Democrats don’t support an agenda that is in line with biblical values. He also noted that Christian preachers were one of the most outspoken groups against slavery in 1860.
Baby, Kamala got caught up! lol the prayer was over but sis was still going in haha pic.twitter.com/uKdObnf2Tr
— André Marcel Harris, MSW (@andreharris89) November 3, 2024
Scores of young COGIC leaders have since responded to Swaggart’s rebuke in an open letter, arguing, in part, that he presented a reductive view of the black church based on political allegiance. They call his view “not only an oversimplification of the faith but a theological distortion that borders on idolatry.”
“The Gospel is not the handmaiden of any political party or political movement, and the Kingdom of God is neither Republican nor Democrat. Such a mishandling of the Gospel is erroneous at best and heretical at worst,” the leaders asserted.
Sheard’s anointing of Harris came after she delivered a message from Jeremiah 29:11 which says: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
“We are blessed because we are yet in the land of the living. You are blessed to be in this place today and we’re blessed to have, ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris,” Sheard declared as he introduced Harris to his congregation ahead of her message.
Harris then wielded scripture while encouraging the packed church to help God’s plan by voting.
“So church, in just two days, we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come. And as we prepare for that moment, I am reminded of the passage from scripture. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, for I know the plans I have for you. They are the plans for good. And not for disaster. To give you a future and a hope. Church, God has a plan for us. He has good plans,” Harris declared.
“Plans that will heal us and bring us together as one nation. Plans for freedom, plans for opportunity, plans for justice. But let us remember, it is not enough to just believe in those plans. We must act. Not enough to only pray, not enough to just talk. We must act on the plans he has in store for us. And we must make them real through our works.”
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