Harris puts the final nail in the coffin of Christian nationalism panic

OPINION:

As America’s agonizing, enervating and nail-biting presidential election nears its conclusion, Vice President Kamala Harris has apparently seen the light — at least according to some of the political ads and proclamations emerging from her campaign, friends and allies.

Ms. Harris, indubitably seeking to bolster her faith standing among voters, recently made the head-turning decision to speak at Koinonia Christian Center Church in Greenville, North Carolina, where Bishop Rosie O’Neal heralded the Democratic presidential candidate as a “phenomenal servant of God.”

During the service, Ms. Harris spoke about how having faith can help people navigate tough times, The Christian Post reported.

“It is easy in these moments of crisis to question our faith, to sometimes lose our faith for a moment because [of] what we see,” Ms. Harris said, going on to offer praise for being part of the worship event. “It does my heart and soul good.”

At other points, she said “faith is a verb,” encouraged people to take action and shared a number of Bible verses as part of what The Hill called an “an appeal to Black voters.”

In an era when a Republican candidate cannot breathe in the same space as a pastor without rampant hyperventilation and claims of “Christian nationalism,” Ms. Harris was somehow able to skate by with not even the faintest of whimpers from the legacy press. It’s something conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt astutely covered in his analysis of the church speech.

“It has long been a feature, not a bug, of political coverage in America to decry Republicans talking at church gatherings but to ignore as inconvenient to the dominant legacy media narrative of ‘danger on the right!’ the vibrant (and entirely constitutionally appropriate) appearance of Democrats before large Black congregations in the run-up to elections,” Mr. Hewitt noted.

On the merits of Christian nationalism and the often perpetuated separation of church and state panic, he’s correct. In a general sense, Ms. Harris and other Democratic candidates are almost exclusively given a pass when they court Christians and other religious groups whereas Republicans are treated as dangerous pariahs for their religious engagement.

It’s no secret that both Ms. Harris and her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, have somewhat ignored and sidestepped faith during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Yet Ms. Harris seems to be increasingly flirting with the necessity of courting faith voters, which indicates she and her advisers recognize they’re leaving votes on the table. This is likely why she just released a new ad focused on the importance of belief to motivate “souls to the polls.”

“Let us agree that our faith requires actions,” Ms. Harris proclaimed on the spot. “It requires that we fight for what we know to be true … faith in the promise of our nation, freedom, liberty and equality. Not for some, but for all.”

It goes without saying that such decrees about belief ring incredibly hollow and are so general it’s almost impossible to comprehend what a candidate like Ms. Harris really believes about faith, God and related themes. These spots are designed to somehow target the faithful without actually offering any real substance — attempted political dog whistles that can sway some.

Even if that doesn’t work, though, Ms. Harris is simultaneously on the prowl for faith voters in other sectors. In August, the Harris-Walz campaign hired the Rev. Jen Butler to oversee faith outreach and bring more religious voters into the Democratic fold.

Plus, Ms. Harris started ramping up efforts last month in Arizona to get members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on board her campaign, appealing to their faith to implore them to join her coalition.

With Mormon members making up 6% of Arizona’s population — and with the race between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump tighter than ever — it’s understandable why the vice president would want to court these individuals.

Perhaps the biggest elephant in the room, though, is Evangelicals For Harris, a group heralding itself as a collective of “faithful, compassionate evangelicals exercising our God-given citizenship by voting for someone who better reflects Christian values.”

The organization’s efforts are aimed at encouraging Christians to choose Ms. Harris over Mr. Trump — an endeavor that has sparked quite a bit of controversy and attention, especially over the group’s provocative ads targeting the faithful.

Make no mistake: There’s nothing wrong with presidential candidates courting the faithful and speaking at churches, or with cohorts of religious Americans advocating for a candidate.

But, after years of misinformation and panic over Christian nationalism — a boogeyman conjured up to often scare Christians away from conservatism, the cognitive dissonance and unbalanced handling of these issues in the media and political circles is mind-numbing.

Ms. Harris and her allies are doing the very same thing many Republican and Christian politicians and citizens do: vote for their values. Yet liberals enjoy an upper hand, with the freedom to deploy their faith in elections without being unfairly labeled. Meanwhile, conservatives and their allies must constantly contend with the claim that they’re dangerous Christian nationalists bent on destroying America.

The media must finally wake up to the nonsensical mishandling of these themes — and now is the perfect time to recognize the insanity and change course.

Ms. Harris’ church speech, faith outreach and Evangelicals for Harris’ actions should be the final nail in the coffin of the “Christian nationalism” panic that many liberals have perpetuated and weaponized against conservatives in an effort to coerce silence.

• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is the author of four books.