Pastor: The Bible says Harris can't be president since her parents immigrated here
Andrew Isker cited a bizarre passage from Deuteronomy to justify his unconstitutional argument
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At this point, it’s not surprising to hear pastors endorse Republican candidates from the pulpit —or trash the Democrat. They don’t care if it violates IRS rules because they know as well as anyone the IRS doesn’t bother enforcing the Johnson Amendment.
But Andrew Isker, a Minnesota pastor who recently guest-preached at a church in Indiana, made a rather unusual argument for why the congregation shouldn’t support Kamala Harris: She doesn’t have biological children and her ancestors didn’t live in this country.
Right Wing Watch has the clip focusing on the latter statement:
Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Emhoff, who is running for president. She—neither of her parents are from America, right? She was born in California, but they both were on on student visas. She doesn't have a connection to the history of this people.
…
… If you think about the principle of what this is teaching, she is not connected to the past of this country whatsoever… She doesn't have ancestors that fought in the Civil War or ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War…
…
… She makes me look like… I’m a Mayflower descendent. And all of you too! It’s insane, really, that this person who is without a future and without much of a past, at least here, is attaining the highest office in the land, is being installed as the President of the United States.
It’s irrelevant, apparently, that the Constitution declares anyone born in this country, which Harris was, can become president. Isker also seems unconcerned by the fact that, if we limited the presidency to only those whose ancestors were here hundreds of years ago, the office would be closed off to virtually everyone who’s not white.
While descendants of slaves are technically included under his umbrella, it’s not hard to imagine Isker dismissing them because that’s not what he meant.
You know who also doesn’t have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary or Civil War? Donald Trump, whose grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1885… in order to avoid military service. (Like grandfather, like grandson.)
He also said elsewhere in the sermon that someone without biological children couldn’t be president because that means “you are concerned only with the present.” Which is a bizarre thing to say about someone with two step-children… and in front of Christians who have a strong argument against long-term thinking since they believe Jesus will come back for them any minute now.
As if Trump, with several biological children through different mothers, is somehow a better father to the kids he wasn’t directly involved in raising.
Also weird? Isker centered his sermon around two Bible verses, Deuteronomy 23: 1-2, which are two of the strangest verses someone could cite:
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.
You know you’ve screwed up when you’re basing your presidential endorsement on a verse that says someone whose balls have been destroyed can’t get into Heaven.
(He used those verses to argue that the first verse referenced Harris’ lack of biological children while the second demanded a lengthy American ancestry tree.)
Isker is hardly a fringe figure, as Right Wing Watch points out:
Isker is a far-right Christian nationalist who interned under Douglas Wilson and who co-wrote "Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations" with Andrew Torba, the virulently antisemitic founder of the social media platform Gab.
Just a dangerous mix of religious extremism and political conservatism. Pastors like this can always find some obscure verses and interpretations to argue why people who don’t look and live exactly as they do have no business running the country.
Here’s hoping that view is not just rejected by Americans next week, but rejected by some of the white evangelicals who overwhelmingly supported Trump in the past two elections.
Incidentally, one of the Christians who’s embracing Isker’s argument is, predictably, his wife Kara:
"Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Emhoff, who is running for president."
Anyone else notice this subtle bit of sexism? The only reason to call her "Mrs Emhoff" is to deny her agency and claim that her husband has some ownership of her.
[𝑆]ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑠𝑜𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟… 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝑊𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑊𝑎𝑟…
So that means I am not connected to the past. My grandfather wasn't born in the US. So why isn't he objecting to Trump's candidacy? After all, his mother was born in Scotland, and his paternal grandfather was born in Germany. Oh yeah. Trump is a white man. There's the real reason for his objection. He had to pick a cherry that backed up the racism as well as the sexism. That's why he picked Deuteronomy instead of 1 Timothy.