PHOENIX (RNS) — At this year’s AmericaFest, a conservative conference sponsored by Turning Point USA, the organization’s founder, 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, was keen to give credit for President-elect Donald Trump’s November victory to God.
“The person, or more importantly, who deserves credit is God Almighty for saving this country,” he said in his opening address to the more than 20,000 people who gathered days before Christmas at the Phoenix Convention Center. “We were inches away from a civil war,” he said. “And by the grace of God that we did not earn and we did not deserve, (Trump’s) life was spared on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
But Kirk was also eager to give credit to the churches, pastors and religious activists who helped return Trump to the White House. He was careful to highlight the work of his own organization. “Turning Point quietly built the grassroots army,” according to a promotional video for the organization that aired at the start of the conference. “We trained tens of thousands of pastors and church leaders to speak boldly and encourage their congregations to vote.”
The power of the religious right has always rested on its ability to deliver votes, and Turning Point USA has become one of the most powerful mobilizers …