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)XQGLQJSDUWLDOO\SURYLGHGE\&LW\RI*UHHQYLOOH+RWHO0RWHO2FFXSDQF\7D[5HYHQXHV“It’s no coincidence that you’re hear-
ing my voice today,” he says.
When he’s done this morning, there
are at least a dozen people walking down
the aisles, ready to be born again.Here’s Robert Jeffress in his office
again, on a weekday afternoon in ear-
ly fall. He’s sitting flat-footed in a blue
leather chair, wearing one of his usual
dark suits and satiny ties, like he’s ready
to appear on camera at a moment’s no-
tice, should the need arise. I’m sitting
at the end of a big leather couch, a few
feet away, with my recorder between us.
We’re talking about the distinction
he makes between what he considers
spiritual and political. I want to know
if it’s really tenable, if it’s really honest.
On Twitter, he promotes his sermons
and events at the church right next to
his appearances on Fox News. When
his choir performed “Make America
Great Again” in D.C., it was a de facto
Trump rally—and now the song is in
the church hymn database. He doesn’t
just invite Fox personalities like Sean
Hannity and politicians like Ted Cruz
and Greg Abbott into his sanctuary; the
church often uses their appearances as
bring-a-friend promotions.
Our conversations over the months
often return to this topic, and he agrees
it’s an important one.
“If someone asks me to talk on a sub-
ject,” he says, “I ask myself the first ques-
tion: Does the Bible have a particular
point of view on this?”
The Bible has a point of view on many
things, he explains. Some things, like
capital punishment or whether a coun-
try’s leader has a right to defend its
borders, he thinks, are clear. Other is-
sues, like marginal tax rates and public
health-care policy, are less clear. And
besides, when Hannity was there to pro-
mote a Christian movie, they didn’t say
much about politics at all.
What about when you call Democrats
the “party of immorality”? I ask. Isn’t
that crossing the line into politics?
“I think, in a lot of ways, the Republi-
can party is just as spiritually bankrupt
as the Democratic party, but at least at
this point in time they are championing
some moral principles like the right to
life and the right of religious liberty.”
It’s an interesting equivocation, and
I’m reminded how, in our exchanges,
he has emphatically insisted that he’s110 TEXAS MONTHLY