MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (RNS) — On the Sunday after the recent presidential election (Nov. 10), Allen Jackson got up to recognize the many veterans in the congregation and to give thanks for the election results, to applause from many in the white evangelical megachurch’s sanctuary.
But Jackson, 67, the church’s longtime pastor, known for his conservative values and outspoken support for Israel, characterized the election’s outcome as more a reprieve than a victory. “I really did feel like the Lord showed us mercy, when, in truth, we deserve judgment,” said Jackson.
Much work is still to be done in restoring what Jackson called “a biblical worldview” to the nation’s culture, he said, and he made clear that his congregants could not depend on elected officials to do that work for them. “We will have to have more courage than the people that you voted for,” he added.
While Donald Trump’s faith advisers were elated that voters returned him to the White House, some evangelical pastors in Tennessee were more muted in the days after the election. Like their congregants and voters around the nation, who said in exit polls that the economy determined their vote more than any other issue, the pastors RNS interviewed were focused more on the cost of day-to-day items like gas and food than a revival of Christian power.
Brownsville, T …