Grace Harvest Covenant Cross Point New Life Downtown For the City, an evangelical megachurch in Orlando, Florida, has a sizable refugee ministry. The church offers food aid, English classes, and employment services to a diverse community of people who have sought asylum in the United States from war-torn countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Haiti.
“Well, there’s not as many anymore now that they are getting deported,” Pastor Trey McCooljeans says. “But we are here for them until they are forcibly returned to their violent home countries by a government we support.”
“We love refugees; many of them are persecuted Christians, who of course matter more than other kinds of refugees,” he continues. “We also have mission partnerships in many of these places and take mission trips to several other countries.”
A Haitian man exiting the church’s food pantry says he’s grateful for the help, now that the Trump administration has revoked his Temporary Protected Status, rendering him unable to work as he awaits deportation to the most dangerous country in the world.
“I don’t really know what is going to happen,” he says. “I have been here since I was 10 and have no family in Haiti. My children are US citizens.” He begins to weep. Pastor McCooljeans and his helpmeet, Smokinhotwife McCooljeans, embrace him.
Statistically, the congregation at Grace Harvest Covenant Cross Point New Life Downtown For The City, which is a predominantly white evangelical church, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the last three elections.
A woman working in the pantry confirms that this includes her. “He’s not the most moral person,” she admits, “But he stands up for Christian values.”
When asked what she thinks of the administration’s expulsion of Haitian and other refugees, along with his shutting down of the US refugee program except for admissions of white South Africans, she gets a glazed look in her eye and appears to have a mild stroke.
“Abortion… trans kids…DEI…The Bible is Clear,” she says, before she returns to bagging groceries for people whose lives are endangered by the policies for which she voted.
Pastor McCooljeans says he can’t comment on those issues because the church stays away from politics. An analysis of his sermons over the last year yielded 53 mentions of abortion, 37 mentions of DEI, and 43 mentions of LGBTQ issues.
“Those issues aren’t political; they are moral,” he says.
When asked whether he thinks the administration’s clear racism is a concern, Pastor McCooljeans becomes irate. “Look, we do more for our non-white neighbors and countries around the world than anyone. We are not racist, and I am insulted you would even insinuate that just because we vote overwhelmingly for a President with racist policies.”
“And maybe his policies aren’t racist, anyway. Maybe there really is a white genocide in South Africa [there is not]. And maybe Haitians really are eating pets [they are not]. That’s why we have this pantry, so they don’t need to do that.”
“Look, I highly doubt we can do anything more than help refugees in the ways we are already doing,” he says. “Sure, white evangelical Christians make up the majority of Trump’s base, and I suppose if we all banded together and said we weren’t voting in the midterms unless he restores TPS and the larger refugee program, it might make a difference.”
“But that would help the Democrats. We can’t have that.”
Holly Berkley Fletcher is an author, historian, and former intelligence analyst. She was raised in Kenya by evangelical missionary parents. She earned a PhD in American history and taught in universities for several years before being hired as an Africa analyst by the Central Intelligence Agency, where she worked for nineteen years. She writes the substack A Zebra Without Stripes, and her most recent book is The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism. She lives in the Washington, DC, area with her husband, two kids, and delinquent rescue dog.