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NEW YORK (AP) – Messages at Christian places of worship on the first weekend since the election were as divided as the country’s electorate, with religious leaders mainly calling for peace and unification even as some lamented the result and others were celebrating.
Hours after Democrat Joe Biden’s victory was announced on Saturday, Saint Joseph over the Brandywine Deacon Michael Stankewicz led a prayer during the afternoon mass at the President-elect’s Church in Wilmington, Delaware, in which he asked “that our newly elected leaders lead with wisdom and integrity to bring unity, peace and reconciliation in our country and in the world.
In Oklahoma, which voted for President Donald Trump by a 2: 1 margin, civil rights activist and minister Warren G. Blakney Sr. began the Sunday morning service at the Church of Christ in North Peoria noting the impact of the virus on his hometown of Tulsa and mourning the death of a church member the day before.
He delivered an exulting message of political change to parishioners, saying the elections provide the catalyst “to begin to celebrate a new era”.
“Aren’t you glad 74 million hearts don’t want this anymore?” I voted for the change. I know better days are coming in January, ”said Blakney, shouting to be heard over the car horns being honked in tune by the faithful attending the parking lot service.
Other religious leaders issued a note of concern.
Pastor Matt Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio lamented a troubled world and said that “the remedy,” which was the main theme of his Sunday sermon, was Jesus Christ.
Without explicitly naming the elected president and vice-president, he criticized government officials, abortion and what he called “God’s word” censorship. Last year, Biden changed his stance on abortion to end restrictions on government funding for the procedure.
“There is something wrong when it doesn’t take a lot of effort to fill the streets with protesters, but you have to beg and plead to fill a church with prayer warriors. Something is wrong when the word of God is censored as hate speech and officials can blatantly lie and be called servants. Something is wrong when we can murder unborn children and call it health care, ”Hagee said on the live broadcast service.
Her father, prominent mega-church pastor and Conservative activist John Hagee, returned to Cornerstone on Sunday after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last month. The 80-year-old pastor is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
In a brief appearance on stage, he told worshipers to dream big and “make the tent bigger,” and cited political reasons in praising the church’s educational work.
“We have built a world class school for our young people who will become the leaders of tomorrow, who are not infected with the socialist ideas that children now hear in public schools,” he said.
Later, the elder Hagee lamented the “miserable year” and challenged the devotees to “forget” it and move on.
“Go home today, take a shower and shake it out of your hair,” he says. “Turn off the fake news and start expecting God to do the right thing.”
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Henao reported from Jersey City, NJ. World religion editor Sally Stapleton contributed from New York.
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The Associated Press religious coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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