The American democratic experiment has been an object of fascination since its infancy. Claiming to study the prison system, French magistrates and aristocrats Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont traveled across the United States in 1831 and 1832 to get a closer look. They observed in this country not only “its inhabitants, its towns, its institutions, its customs”, but also “the mechanism of its republican government”. Tocqueville drew two emblematic works from this ten-month stay: Democracy in America And Fifteen days in the desert. Duty followed in their footsteps, 193 years later, at a time when this democracy seems more threatened than ever. Fourth stop: Again in Detroit, where believers want to rule the country.
Faithful of the 180o Church (180 degrees church), which received a visit from Donald Trump last June, pray quietly for the establishment of a theocracy in America.
Molly Sewell waits, smiling from ear to ear, outside the side door of the brick building located in a drug-ridden neighborhood of Detroit. The woman from South Korea welcomes with an outpouring of tenderness the visitors who have responded to the call of her husband, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, to “revere Jesus, who alone has the power to transform our lives”.
In the vestibule, a man holds out a basket not for us to place a bank note in, but for us to take a capsule, resembling those from Nespresso coffee machines. The 180 capsuleo Church contains not coffee beans, but bread crumbs and a spoonful of wine: the body and blood of Christ.
Inside, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell takes center stage. His hands wrap around a microphone. He implores God to forgive him his sins, including those of gossiping, grumbling and lack of endurance.
Without warning, he invites the faithful clinging to his lips to pray for the political leaders of the nation, starting with the president, Joe Biden, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the justices of the Supreme Court. “We are a nation under the authority of God,” he said, after closing his eyes.
According to the ex-drug dealer turned pastor, everyone must obey the Bible, which is “totally relevant in every subject it addresses,” even though it was written more than 1,500 years ago — which the director of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games did not do so, he denounces.
Lorenzo Sewell calls on his disciples to refuse that “the demon takes hold of our children”, that he has the features of the French singer Philippe Katerine – who was surrounded by drag queens in a living painting of the Feast of the Gods by Giovanni Bellini at the start of the last Summer Olympics – or even a “bathroom for trans people”. “We must say: ‘Enough is enough!’ » he says, encouraging the spectators who continue to flock inside the non-denominational church to “use their vote as a weapon” on November 5.
Some jump from their benches padded with blue satin fabric and raise their arms to the sky.
The pastor publicly supports the Republican Party, something he refused to do before Donald Trump’s visit to the church in June and the invitation to him to give a speech at the Republican convention in July. “ Make Black America Great Again “, he says after doing a 180 degree in front of a diverse crowd: white and black people, young and old.
On stage, a teenage girl receives baptism, after having turned her back on “all false religions” and “her former sinful lifestyle”. The faithful smile and pray. “Hallelujah. Alleluia. »
Christian pop music performed by nearly a dozen singers and musicians and amplified by large speakers makes the room vibrate.
Vote according to the Bible
Pastor-entrepreneur Lorenzo Sewell, who now cherishes the dream of opening a private Christian elementary school, gained popularity after appearing alongside Donald Trump at his church in Detroit and then at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Californian Debra Haley stopped by Detroit’s west side to see it firsthand.
To demonstrate the importance of faith in her life, she says she brings her “bible to the voting booth” every time she exercises her right to vote. “I vote according to biblical principles,” maintains the woman.
She recognizes that there is no political party that has a program perfectly in line with the Bible. As a result, the “single issue voter, or almost” examines the position of the main candidates on two or three key issues for her, then she chooses her side. “As long as I get what I want, you get what you want.” This is how I vote,” she says, asking policymakers to be “bold in their faith” and “defend what the Bible says.”
Debra Haley apologizes for the failings of her favorite candidate for the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump. “Forget about personality! [Dans un certain temps]he will be gone. Its policies will always be there. They will affect everyone’s lives,” she emphasizes, adding that America and Americans live in sin. “We are all sinners. We all do bad things today and tomorrow. Hit me with a 2×4 and you’ll see what I’ll do. I’m not going to bow down and pray. I’m going to grab this 2×4 and try to beat you,” the unwitting “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” proponent continues, before asking Pastor Sewell if he could pose for a photo with her.
Combining religion and politics
Alexis de Tocqueville takes stock of the religious and racial diversity of the country in the Detroit region, where “diverse religions or sects share the faith of this emerging society”. He notably met the Catholic priest and former Michigan delegate to the House of Representatives, Gabriel Richard, in the midst of the religious fervor which forced the authorities to interrupt the circulation of horse-drawn carriages in the streets around churches on Sundays. Even more, he observes an “intimate union of the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom” unthinkable in Catholic France, especially since the revolution of 1789. “Alongside each religion is a political opinion which, by affinity, is attached to it,” he points out.
The “human spirit […] will seek, if I dare say it, to harmonize the earth with the sky,” also writes Alexis de Tocqueville.
“Harmonizing the earth with the sky” is the dream of faithful of the 180 degrees church, including Pamela Griffin.
Last June, the woman waited for two hours to see and hear Donald Trump, a politician who has started selling Bibles, in the church she has attended assiduously for 15 years. She remembers that the presidential candidate was surrounded by “100 percent” black people — many of whom she had never seen in her life — and that the many white people were off camera.
Pamela places the Bible above the United States Constitution and its suite of amendments.
She is asked if she advocates the establishment of a theocracy in the United States, as in Iran.
“Well, we don’t want the government to follow the Quran.
—The Bible?
— That, yes! We must lead the world with this. »
“I hate to say this, but Muslims follow their beliefs more than Christians. They have a strong Muslim state. They base their way of life and raise their family according to the Koran,” she adds.
Pamela Griffin is opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and the right to abortion, among other things. Paulette, her “sister in Christ”, too. “Have you all accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord, your Savior? » asks the Christian evangelist while brandishing a Bible.
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell believes the Bible should “direct” government action. “That’s what Jesus meant,” he replies after Duty had it hung between two services.
“Why not run for elected office like many pastors have done?”
–Maybe soon. The Church is supposed to influence politics, but it’s up to me to teach it. If people accept it and get involved, then maybe the Lord will give me permission to take the leap. »
A man approaches. He asks if he can pray for us. He puts down his Bible, grabs our hands, asks a few questions, lowers his eyelids and begs God to give us protection and courage, and to urge us to report accurately what we saw and heard in the church.
In the moral world, everything is classified, coordinated, planned, decided in advance. In the political world, everything is agitated, contested, uncertain; in one, passive, although voluntary, obedience; in the other, independence, contempt for experience and jealousy of all authority. Far from harming each other, these two tendencies, apparently so opposed, work in harmony and seem to lend each other mutual support.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.Duty.