Jennifer Butler, an uber-liberal Presbyterian minister and political activist, has been named national faith engagement director by the Harris campaign.
Asked about her new role by Religion News Service, Butler said the country is at a “pivotal moment in American democracy, where faith voices for justice are needed now more than ever.”
According to the RNS story about Butler, the term “justice” for her means advocating for abortion, free health care, illegal immigration, and homosexuals.
While embracing those left-wing positions, in the name of Christianity, Butler also claims "Christian nationalism" has harmed the Church.
"The manipulation of religion for power, control and manipulation, aka Christian Nationalism, has done such spiritual damage," she wrote in a X post dated August 29.
Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, of Southern Evangelical Seminary, tells AFN it is unlikely the left-wing activist will change the hearts and minds of Evangelicals as Election Day approaches. More than likely, he says, her job is to preach to a left-wing choir and urge them to get out and vote Nov. 5.
“To some extent, this is going to be a turn-out election,” Land observes. “America, at this point in its history, is fairly evenly divided on a lot of issues, and so it's which campaign can get the most of its potential voters out and to the polls.”
In fact, in the RNS story, Butler said she is targeting religious people in battleground states. She named Catholic voters in Michigan and Wisconsin, and Latter-day Saints in Arizona, as examples.
Among the Evangelical voters, Butler also said the Harris campaign is wooing “evangelical women” who support abortion and oppose abortion laws that “put women and doctors in jail.”
'Much more faith in government'
According to Land, the version of Christianity that Butler espouses, and the worldview that forms her beliefs, are much different than what most Evangelicals believe.
“They don't believe that man is basically evil. We do,” he says. “They have much more faith in government and in man's ability, collectively through government, to make the right choices.”
It is unclear, for example, if the abortion-supporting minister sides with the Department of Justice or with Mark Houck, the Catholic leader and pro-life activist. He was facing up to 10 years in prison before a federal jury acquitted him of violating the FACE Act.
In the RNS story, the words “sin” or “salvation” or “gospel” did not appear but Democrats or the Democratic Party was mentioned 19 times.
Butler, who grew up Methodist in the South, told RNS she believes Jesus brings good news to the poor, and to the oppressed, but she never saw that version of Jesus as a young person in church.
So she views her role as helping people “hear that voice of a true Christianity that is about freedom for the oppressed.”
