Jentezen Franklin, an Atlanta-area megachurch pastor and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, sent supporters an email Wednesday morning to pass along what he called “a message burning in my spirit.” Franklin appears at Trump campaign events and uses his media platforms to push the religious right’s fear-mongering claims that religious liberty in America will not survive if Trump is defeated, and on Wednesday, he urged conservative Christians to get mad about it.
Wednesday’s email links to a two-minute video Franklin posted on his blog Tuesday under the heading, “United and anointed, we can change the course of history.” The video appears to be clipped from a sermon entitled “Pray, Fast, Vote.” Franklin tells his listeners to get angry:
We are in a state of siege in our country, and it's time to do something about it. We must get mad enough and outraged enough, not at people, but at what is happening to our nation, at what is happening to our society, our cities, our nation—that we unite, and we take the hands of America, and we pull it in.
“The church is the only answer,” said Franklin, adding, “We cannot be silent anymore.” He continued:
We cannot be quiet anymore. We cannot sit on the sidelines and let another election come around, and the body of Christ just sit there and watch what's happening to our religious liberty, and our freedom.
And I'm telling you, we are watching our nation, with its hands on the threshold of the church, and if ever we needed to pray, and if ever we needed to not vote Democrat or Republican, but vote who is nearest to what this book [the Bible] says … And you can sit back and say, “Well, I don't like either one of them.” They're both flawed, but just figure, who is pro-life because the Bible is pro-life? Who is pro-marriage between a man and a woman, because the Bible is? Who is religious, who is for religious freedom? This is how we vote, according to God's word, not accord—my highest allegiance is to the King of Kings and the Lord of lords. And his word has not changed. Culture has, America has, but this book has not. And when you stand before God, he's gonna judge you according to this book. This is not a game, this is the Bible. And it's the truth. The hands of America are on the threshold of the church.
In September, Franklin wrote at the conservative Christian site The Stream, “Nov. 3, 2020 represents the election of a lifetime, as well as a critical moment to speak up. If you don’t, it’s only a matter of time until ‘speaking up’ becomes a thing of the past. If I were you, I’d vote like the First Amendment itself was on the ballot.”
Franklin appeared at an Evangelicals for Trump event in July, where he focused his remarks on the Supreme Court and warned conservative Christians, “Speak now or forever hold your peace. You won’t have another chance. You won’t have freedom of religion. You won’t have freedom of speech.”
