Stephen Strang, CEO of the Pentecostal-oriented Charisma media and publishing outfit, will publish yet another book on God and President Donald Trump in January; in an excerpt distributed via email by Charisma’s public relations firm on Monday, Strang warns conservative Christians not to be overconfident about the 2020 election.
If conservative Christians are feeling that Trump can’t lose, perhaps it’s because Strang and the authors he promotes, like Lance Wallnau, have spent years telling evangelical Christians that Trump won because he was anointed by God and that God intervened in the 2016 election to save America.
For example, the promotional material for Strang’s new book declares:
In 2016 God raised up Donald Trump to lead America at a pivotal time. Evangelicals who recognized this backed him more than any other presidential candidate in history. Heading into 2020, the stakes in his reelection are even higher. This election, nine months after this book releases, is a new fight for the soul of America.
…
This book is as much about God and His purposes as about Donald Trump. But it is also an articulate, impassioned apologetic about why all Christians must support this imperfect president, because he has God’s blessing and because the destiny of America is riding on his reelection.
If that’s the case, why would God abandon Trump in his reelection bid? Charisma says the book, “God, Trump and the 2020 Election,” is “an inside look at how the political climate is affected by spiritual warfare” and that “satanic schemes are so brazen on key issues that the book was written to explain what’s at stake.”
The book, whose subtitle is “Why He Must Win and What’s at Stake for Christians If He Loses,” warns that dishonest Democrats will try to steal the election. Strang cites Tom Ertl, who was national media director for Christians for Donald Trump in 2016, warning that the ruling establishment and the deep state will not rest until Trump is defeated.
“Democrats will unite and throw everything they have at the next election, and if Christians decide not to rally together and vote according to biblical values, we could see our spiritual enemy win some major battles—in our policies, our leadership and our rights,” Strang writes. “If we are to preserve our freedoms, we can’t be overconfident.”
Strang worries that some conservative Christians may be so tired of Trump constantly provoking controversy via Twitter that they “may think a sleepy Joe Biden is preferable to a constantly combative Trump.” And some, he warns, may decide to stay home, like millions did in 2012 rather than voting for a candidate they did not like—Mitt Romney—even though, Strang says, his policies were better than Obama’s.
As an antidote to potential overconfidence or apathy among conservative Christians, Strang points to the work of Vision America, one of many conservative evangelical groups that will be mobilizing voters in 2020 to keep Trump in the White House. Vision America, founded by Rick Scarborough, is now run by John Graves, whose mission is to get conservative Christians registered and voting. Strang writes:
Through Vision America’s pastor arm, named Acts 20:28 Pastors, churches large and small are proving that pastors can help reverse our nation’s moral decline. Using cutting-edge technology, the organization is able to determine county by county how many pro-life conservatives are registered to vote but unlikely to go to the polls. It then equips pastors and people of faith to educate those disengaged voters and encourage them to vote.
The results of their efforts have been nothing short of amazing. According to the Acts 20:28 Pastors website, pastors who use their resources see an average voter turnout in their church that is 55% higher than the average turnout in their local community. “More and more, pastors and people of faith are seeing that [voting] is a spiritual act and not a political act,” Graves said.
Strang promoted Trump’s candidacy and has been a relentless cheerleader for Trump as president. He has published two pro-Trump books, “God and Trump”—which depicted Trump’s election as a miracle—and “Trump Aftershock.” Not surprisingly, other religious right leaders have helped promote Strang’s books.
Strang was among the religious right leaders who attended Trump’s June reelection rally in Orlando, the one at which Paula White opened with prayer and denounced Trump’s opponents as demonic.
A few weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Strang portrayed the hostility in our political culture as “a battle between good and evil, between light and darkness.” Last fall, Strang suggested that Trump had been “forced” to engage in tax fraud because tax laws are “so unfair.” During the confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Strang downplayed the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, saying, “He’s denied these things, but even if they’re true, it was pretty nickel-and-dime stuff that high school kids do. Everybody on that committee probably did that kind of stuff when they were teenagers. I mean, it’s just kind of part of growing up.”
