Pastors used coded public language to signal endorsement without violating rules

Evidence

As a pastor Jeffress couldn’t endorse a candidate, but he made clear that he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t think Trump “would make a great president.” Jeffress wasn’t alone. Already at that point, before the Iowa caucuses at the beginning of February, 42 percent of white evangelicals supported Trump—more than any other candidate. The reason was simple, Jeffress contended. Evangelicals were “sick and tired of the status quo.” They were looking for the leader who would “reverse the downward death spiral of this nation that we love so dearly.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 2

Categorization

• XREF: Jeffress’s circumlocution parallels how rebecca Anne Proctor and others note religious leaders sidestep political endorsements, and echoes the book’s broader theme of Christianity as political power project. — connects to: Evangelical pastor-mobilization organizers openly admit their meetings are political. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 358; Christian-right leader rhetoric is calibrated for an energized congregation — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 60