A prominent pastor defended his decision to speak and pray at a rally with former President Donald Trump less than a month before the presidential election, seeing it as consistent with his mandate to “point people to Christ.”
Pastor Greg Laurie, founder of the Harvest churches in California and Hawaii and of Harvest Crusades, said in an X post on Wednesday that he was asked to speak at pray at the rally.
“I was asked last Saturday to speak and pray at a Trump rally in Coachella,” Laurie said while insisting that if he were asked to speak at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also running for president, “I would do so as well.”
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“When I go into settings like this, I go as a representative of God’s Kingdom,” he added. “Some would say that Christians should not be involved in politics. I disagree.”
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Laurie further addressed the role Christians should play in politics in a video accompanying the X post, saying, “My job as a follower of Jesus, and specifically as a pastor, is to represent Christ. And I understand that when I go into any setting, I’m there as a representative of the Kingdom of God, and my primary objective is to point people to Christ,” he said.
In response to the claim by some that “Christians shouldn’t get involved in politics,” Laurie asked, “Where would you get that idea?” He also pushed back on the argument for a “separation of church and state.”
“That was in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a particular person who asked about this. It was not in any of the documents, the founding documents of our nation. And the objective of Jefferson in writing on that particular topic was to keep the government out of the Church, not to keep the Church out of government,” he added.
“We as Christians must permeate, we must saturate our culture. Our job is to shine as bright lights and function as salt,” Laurie maintained. “Jesus said, ‘You’re the light of the world, you’re the salt of the Earth.’”
“We show our light through our good works and the things that we do to help others in preaching the Gospel. And we are salt by stopping the spread of evil because that’s what salt did back in biblical times. They would rub it into meat so it would not rot,” he said.
Laurie listed “voting” and “speaking out on issues” as examples of how Christians can serve as salt and proclaimed that “Christians must be involved in every aspect of American life.”
Stressing that he would “gladly accept” the opportunity to speak at an event for Harris, Laurie asserted that if “you give me a microphone and an opportunity to speak, I’d be happy to do that.”
In his remarks at the Trump rally, Laurie lamented the efforts to “marginalize” Christians by deriding them as “Christian nationalists” and described himself as “a Christian patriot.”
He cited a quote from George Washington, the nation’s first president, as he made the case that the label is not inconsistent with the founding principles of the U.S.: “To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest honor to add the most distinguished character of Christian.”
Laurie also directly rejected the argument made by those who warn about the purported danger “Christian nationalism” poses to American politics: “We’re not trying to impose our faith on anybody else. We want the same First Amendment rights that all Americans have to stand boldly for our faith and say what is true. We’re not trying to push that on anyone but we do want to share it.”
After bringing up how Christians’ obligation to serve as salt and light requires them to vote, Laurie expressed concern about the large number of Evangelical Christians who don’t regularly vote. He called on rallygoers “to vote biblically in this election,” contending that “no election in my lifetime is as consequential as this one, so we all need to engage.”
“I’ve had the privilege of being in the White House when President Trump was our president. He welcomed me and other pastors and Evangelical leaders to pray for the nation, to pray for him even in the Oval Office,” Laurie recalled. “So, he’s been a true friend to the Christian community and we thank him for that.”
At the same time, Laurie vowed to “pray for whoever is elected to be the next president of the United States.” He led the audience in a prayer asking that God would “give us the privilege to pass on the America we have known for future generations” and seek His “blessing” and “mercy” for the U.S. He also expressed hope that God would direct all leaders, “whatever their politics.”
Laurie also thanked God for protecting Trump’s life from “two assassination attempts.”
“You put your angels around him” and “put a hedge of protection around him,” Laurie said. He asked God to “give him wisdom,” enabling him to become “closer to you than he ever has been before.”
“We pray that you will bless America, we entrust our future, our families into your hands,” Laurie concluded as he led the audience in reciting The Lord’s Prayer.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
