News

Worship pastor writes viral song calling out evangelical supporters of Trump

by Brooke Seipel - 01/31/20 8:15 PM ET

A worship pastor is gaining widespread attention for writing an anti-Trump song that calls out the 81 percent of white evangelical Christian voters who supported President Trump in 2016.

Daniel Deitrich, a pastor at South Bend City Church in South Bend, Ind., wrote “Hymn for the 81%” out of frustration with Trump’s evangelical support.

“In 2016, 81 percent of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump after, among other things, hearing an audio recording of him bragging about sexually assaulting women. Even after enacting deliberately cruel policies to rip families apart and put children in cages at the southern border, evangelical support is as fervent as ever,” Deitrich told Religion News Service in an interview explaining why he wrote the song.

“I was raised in the evangelical world and was taught to take the words of Jesus seriously: Love God, love your neighbor, feed the hungry, fight against injustice,” he continued. “This song might ruffle some feathers, but maybe some feathers need to be ruffled.”

The song has gained more than 500,000 views since it was first posted.{mosads}

One part of the song includes the lyrics: “You said speak the truth. I’m calling you out. Why don’t you live the words that you put in my mouth. May love overcome and justice roll down.”

Deitrich described the song as “a lament and a rebuke,” ending the song with lyrics “come home, you’re better than this, you taught me better than this.”

While the song has drawn praise from those on the left, others have said the song is “divisive.”

Trump won white evangelicals by more than 81 percent in the 2016 presidential election and maintains high support among the group. Christian author and journalist Stephen Strang predicted in a recent interview that Trump will build on his support from evangelicals in 2020.