After two Christian pro-life college students claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris mocked them at a rally for calling out “Christ is King” and “Jesus is Lord,” pastors including Jack Hibbs and John MacArthur are citing the incident to suggest that Harris is an anti-Christian. Others, however, such as the group Evangelicals for Harris, dispute this view of events.
Jack Hibbs, founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, California, referenced the rally incident in a sermon on Sunday, Oct. 20, and appeared to directly challenge Evangelicals for Harris.
“Evangelicals for Harris. Evangelicals for Harris,” said Hibbs, gesturing with his fist. “What are you going to do with that one? She said if Jesus Christ is Lord, you got to go to the other party. You don’t believe it? Look it up on YouTube. Well, you better hurry up, by the way, before they erase it.”
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‘Jesus Is Lord’—Christians Take Different Views of Harris Rally Incident
At a rally at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse Friday, Oct. 17, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to react to Grant Beth and his friend, Luke Polaske—who called out the name of Jesus while she was speaking—by telling them they were at the “wrong rally.” During her speech, the vice president mentioned abortion and criticized former President Donald Trump for choosing U.S. Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, adding “and they did as he intended.”
Video footage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows that Harris paused after that comment and then said, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” after which the crowd cheered. It is difficult to hear anything in that video during Harris’ pause besides people’s voices in the background. Harris then waved and smiled, adding, “No, I think you meant to go to the smaller [rally] down the street.”
At least two videos that captured the moment from within the audience recorded the voice of someone in the crowd yelling, “Jesus is Lord!” Right after that comment, Harris can be heard saying, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally.” It is not certain from the footage whether Harris was responding to the words about Jesus or to something else.
Some have suggested Harris was reacting to another heckler or that she could not hear what Beth and Polaske said but was simply reacting to being heckled. Polaske and Beth appeared on Fox News after the rally and said that Harris was speaking directly to them and that they were antagonized as they were compelled to leave the event.
ChurchLeaders reached out to Harris for comment regarding what she was reacting to at the rally in La Crosse but has not heard back. An evaluation of the incident by Snopes did not reach a conclusion about what precisely happened. Snopes also reported not hearing back from the Harris-Walz campaign after seeking clarification about the incident.
In a sermon titled “When Christians Fail To Vote,” Pastor Jack Hibbs outlined a number of problems he sees with Christians choosing not to vote, a decision he said was a sin.
