Conservative Christians, Israel and the US vote

Austell, Georgia - In the final dash to the finish line of the United States general election, former President Donald Trump and his allies have been crisscrossing the country in an effort to shore up support among a key base - conservative Christians.

In events like "Believers for Trump" and "Believers and Ballots" rallies, surrogates and leaders of the Republican party have sought to allay residual concerns over Trump's morality, which have dogged the former president since he launched his first presidential run in 2015. Amid polls indicating a slump in Christian voting in general, the message they have spread is that the Republicans are still the party of conservative Christian values.

“Let me just tell you, as long as I'm the chair of the RNC, we are absolutely pro-life, we are pro-family, and we are pro-Israel," Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Convention, said recently at one Trump campaign rally at a church in Austell, Georgia - a key battleground state with a large conservative Christian and evangelical Republican base.

But while Trump's history of abuse towards women, shifting position on abortion, and profane rhetoric have previously given some conservative Christians pause, other attendees at the late-October event also took issue with a key Republican priority this election season: An increasing emphasis on unconditional support for Israel.

But amid the spiralling conflict in the Middle East, in which more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, and more than 2,700 in Lebanon, some attendees at the religiously-oriented event said pledges of unconditional support to Israel run counter to the "America First" message that has long been at the heart of Trump's politics.

"I'm pro-life, pro-family and pro-humanity," said Cindye Coates, a conservative Christian pastor, intentionally subverting Whatley's words. She attended the event with her husband, Stan Coates, a Grammy award-winning gospel musician. They run a small church in Marietta, Georgia.

The couple described themselves as staunchly pro-Trump, as well as supporters of firebrand right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, but said they have been increasingly dismayed by Republican messaging on Israel in support of Trump's campaign.

They pointed to the billions of dollars in military aid the US continues to provide and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of the US Congress, an invitation spearheaded by the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.

"If we're 'America First', why are we doing this?" said Cindye Coates. "The Republican Party needs to be aware there are more and more people who are not pro-Zionism ... They might not say it, they’re going to be quiet because they don’t want to be ridiculed."

Stan Coates, meanwhile, described a growing conversation among those in the religious conservative "grassroots" in opposition to the GOP's stance.

"It's like, my God, man, there's people we need to help here in the US," he said.

Trump and the Republican party continue to connect with several segments of Christian voters, a diverse group of denominations that spans racial identities and political perspectives.

A Pew Research poll released in September found Trump commanded 82 percent of white evangelical Protestant voters, 58 percent of white non-evangelical Protestant voters, and 52 percent of Catholics. Harris, meanwhile, had 86 percent of support among Black Protestants, a group that has long skewed heavily Democratic.

Those numbers are especially significant in a swing state like Georgia, which carries 16 Electoral votes and went to US President Joe Biden in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes. It was the first time the state had gone to a Democratic presidential candidate in 18 years.

White evangelical Protestants - themselves divided into several sub-denominations - account for 38 percent of Georgia's population. That is by far the largest segment of any religious group, followed by Black Protestants at 17 percent.

Evangelicals remain some of the staunchest supporters of Israel, according to a recent analysis of polling by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The entrenched support is rooted, in part, in some segments of the denomination that believe that Jewish people must be in control of Jerusalem for the second coming of Jesus, which will beckon in the Rapture, when living and dead Christians alike will rise to heaven.

Polls have shown that up to 82 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God, according to the analysis.

The group is the most supportive of Israel out of all Christian denominations - at least 60 percent say they fully oppose putting any arms restrictions on Israel, while 64 percent believe that Israel's actions in Gaza are justified.

But the polls also show a more complicated story: Thirty-three percent of White evangelicals say they support some form of restrictions on aid to Israel, with another 11 percent reporting that they feel Israel has gone too far in the war on Gaza.

That may be a reflection of wider trends within the Republican party, with a Data for Progress poll in October showing 52 percent of Republicans aged 18 to 29 supported an arms embargo on Israel.

Speaking to Al Jazeera after buying a black "Make America Great Again" bucket hat in Austell, 20-year-old voter Troy said he was among those who were uncomfortable with continued aid to Israel, which he broadly categorised with other forms of foreign assistance, including large transfers to Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.

“I don’t really understand why Israel is that big of an issue in this election cycle,” said Troy, who declined to give his last name, but identified himself as an Anabaptist Protestant.

“I don’t think the United States should be so involved in anything overseas like that. We keep sending billions to Ukraine, there are still people reeling from the hurricane that came through,” he said, referring to Hurricane Helene, which ravaged Georgia in September.

For his part, Trump has framed himself as a "protector" of Israel, even as he has broadly claimed that the October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed at least 1,139 people, and the war that has spiralled since would not have happened on his watch. Still, speaking during a debate in July, he said US President Joe Biden should allow Israel to "finish the job" in Gaza, and has also?claimed to speak to Netanyahu on a near daily basis.

Any wariness among Republican voters towards their party's Israel policy has not been reflected in pro-Trump messaging to religious audiences in the final days of the race.

Speaking at the Austell event, the RNC's Whatley cheered Trump's 2019 recognition of Israel's annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, his administration's spearheading of the Abraham Accords, which restored diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab countries - while sidelining the Palestinians - and his 2018 relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a city Palestinians hope will one day serve as the capital of a future state, and whose eastern half is illegally occupied by Israel.

That final move was supported by fundamentalist evangelical leaders Robert Jeffress and John Hagee, who both espoused the belief that Washington's recognition of Jerusalem is an important step in the biblical prophecy.

"No president has ever done more for Israel than Donald J Trump," Whatley said at the campaign event.

Ralph Reed, the president of the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition political action committee, which hews closely to evangelical voters, promised to turn out an army of conservative Christian voters in the final days of the election day.

He claimed the group, which is based in Duluth, Georgia, has already knocked on seven million doors in battleground states.

In Georgia, he added, 5,000 churches across the state were distributing the group's voter guides.

Speaking from the chancel in Austell, Reed sought to draw a distinct line between Republicans and Democrats. Despite the continued political and material support to Israel, the administration of US President Joe Biden had "turned their back on Israel", he said, "just because they don't like Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu".

"If you want America to be blessed, you better stand with Israel," he told the crowd. "God blesses those who bless Israel. He curses those who curse Israel."

"On January 20 of 2025, we're all going to be together standing," Reed said, in reference to the presidential inauguration ceremony, "and Donald J Trump is going to have his hand on a Bible taking the oath as the 47th president of the United States ... and we will stand with Israel again".

There is no polling to indicate whether the discord between the recent messaging on Israel and Trump's isolationist policy is actually turning any religiously conservative voters away from the Republicans.

Caleb Stallings, a 34-year-old pastor at a small evangelical Protestant church in Metro Atlanta's Gwinnett County, said that, traditionally, "there have been large swaths of evangelicals that see their spiritual identity as [being] in tandem with the conservative movement and the Republican Party" - even as he acknowledged some concern over Trump's character.

But Stallings added that there was another issue that was causing consternation among some evangelicals - the Republican merging of religious belief and?political support for the government of Israel.

For example, unlike some prominent pro-Israel evangelical leaders, Stallings espouses what he describes as a "spiritual meaning of the scriptures that do not believe any modern nation-state ... can ultimately usher in these things that Christians are hoping for".

"I warn our people a lot that there will always be - whether it's Trump or Netanyahu or Harris or whoever - a spin from somebody that wants the evangelical voter block so they or their party or their agenda can be in power," he said.

On Israel, the pastor said that he tries to "allow people space to come to different conclusions", adding some congregants likely support Israel through the lens of national security.

But many, he said, see "Palestinians are a people in great distress ... there have been women and children and civilians that have died at the hands of armies. And we also have Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza", acknowledging a point often raised by Palestinians, who struggle to understand why the plight of Palestinian Christians is often ignored by their coreligionists.

"I may be in the minority around here," he added, "for not drawing a political line in the sand".

Other church leaders in Georgia took a firmer - and more traditionally evangelical - line.

After casting his ballot in Byron, Georgia, located about 145km (90 miles) south of Atlanta, firmly within what is known as Georgia's "Bible Belt", Pentecostal preacher Mark Watkins said he broadly saw Trump and Republicans reflecting his own religious beliefs.

“My top issues are abortion and transgender rights - I can’t support that,” he said. “And I think supporting Israel should be a top priority.”

“I pray that Trump wins.”