The following is the second of a four-part series to be released on consecutive Sundays. This series is exclusive to members of The Western Journal.
Part one, which you can read here, stated that there are three major flaws in the pro-Harris arguments made by Evangelicals For Harris. Here is the first of those flaws.
1. Evangelicals For Harris erroneously conflates the government with the family and community — not just as a matter of a social unit, but also as it pertains to biblical edicts.
In the Bible, God makes it clear that we are to love and provide for one another. Charity, compassion, unity, love, support — these are all values we are enjoined, as Christians, to practice.
But we’re enjoined to practice them as individuals, or as members of a family or faith community. Where Evangelicals For Harris goes awry is in taking this not just one step, but one giant leap forward — or, in another light, one giant leap away from the faith.
For instance: If the organization has been able to get away with casting the candidate as a plausible alternative for advancing Christian policy prerogatives, it’s because so little of Harris’ campaign has actually revolved around concrete policy proposals.
She has sought to distance herself from the Biden administration and its works as much as she can — unless, of course, it casts her in a positive light. As for substance, she has promised to give to the neediest among us, assumedly by taking it from the wealthiest, who will not miss it.
In this endeavor, however, it’s worth noting that her sole major substantive proposal to separate the “wealthy” from the money that would pay for this — corporate taxation and new taxes on unrealized capital gains — would not only deal a blow to the economy that would be felt across the board but would also hit small business owners the hardest, experts say.
While this is an economic and not spiritual matter, that’s the problem — when it comes to the biblical case Evangelicals For Harris makes for their candidate, it is the rule rather than the exception.
Not only that, those behind it seem to ignore the fact that, as a historical matter, vague political rhetoric that seems to align with Christian values translates far more poorly into actual virtue when the policies necessary to effectuate it are put into place.
And that’s the root of the problem with Evangelicals For Harris: Rarely does the organization touch upon black-and-white matters of Christian faith, but rather policy initiatives that are theoretically defensible by a single Bible verse or theme, but which produce results that don’t necessarily align with that intention.
There are too many examples to count on Evangelicals For Harris’ social media feed, but one perfectly encapsulates the problem: their use of 1 Timothy 5 to attack a proposal in Project 2025 to eliminate the Office of Head Start, the federally administered childcare program.
Project 2025 would eliminate HeadStart, devastating working communities who rely on it for affordable childcare—especially in rural America. We can’t leave our neighbors out to dry. #HarrisWalz #LaborDay #HeadStart #ChildCare #WorkingParents
— Evangelicals For Harris (@Evangels4Harris) August 31, 2024
Let’s ignore that this is a misread of 1 Timothy 5:8, which is clear about the role of the family and not society to care for its members, a distinction the organization almost universally blurs.
(“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever,” the verse said in the English Standard Version.)
If this is the case, as the Project 2025 paper noted, that makes the Office of Head Start “worse than an unbeliever.”
“Head Start, originally established and funded to support low-income families, is fraught with scandal and abuse,” the report noted.
“With a budget of more than $11 billion, the program should function to protect and educate minors. Sadly, it has done exactly the opposite. In fact, ‘approximately 1 in 4 grant recipients had incidents in which children were abused, left unsupervised, or released to an unauthorized person between October 2015 and May 2020.’ Research has demonstrated that federal Head Start centers, which provide preschool care to children from low-income families, have little or no long-term academic value for children. Given its unaddressed crisis of rampant abuse and lack of positive outcomes, this program should be eliminated along with the entire [Office of Head Start].”
Furthermore, a look at the group’s website details a laundry list of how they deliver or propose to deliver for evangelical voters, which scarcely touches upon faith: curbing inflation, increasing wages, proposing an end to “price-gouging,” nominating diverse candidates to fill federal courts, eliminating student debt, enacting gun control, and supporting Ukraine.
You may believe these are wonderful things — and certainly, campaigns make them sound as good as possible. But these are policy prerogatives, not biblical commands, and they so seldom turn out how they’re pitched. Don’t tell that to Evangelicals For Harris or the ticket they support, however:
Our 3rd ad, “The Fruits of the Spirit.”
The Bible says, we shall know Christ’s true followers by their fruits.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have made their priority clear—that in America we choose to love our neighbors. #evangelicalsforharris #faithinaction #DNCConvention2024 pic.twitter.com/RSgtIttl4S
— Evangelicals For Harris (@Evangels4Harris) August 22, 2024
The idea that government intervention forcing this kind of “love [for] our neighbors” on us represents “the fruits of the spirit” as defined in the Bible is bordering on heresy — and, at the very least, is faulty theology of the highest order.
The next two major flaws in the pro-Harris argument made by Evangelicals For Harris will be covered in the next two installments of this series. Look for part three on Sept. 22 at The Western Journal.
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