Harmonizing Earth with Sky

Photomontage: Cédric Gagnon Le Devoir The pastor of the 180-degree church publicly supports the Republican Party, something he refused to do before Donald Trump's visit to the church in June.

Marco Bélair-Cirino In Detroit

Published at 12:00 am

• United States

The American democratic experiment has been an object of fascination since its infancy. Pretending to study the penitentiary 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 not only “its inhabitants, its cities, its institutions, its customs,” but also “the mechanism of its republican government.” Tocqueville wrote two emblematic works from this ten-month stay: Democracy in America and Fifteen Days in the Desert. Le Devoir followed in their footsteps 193 years later, at a time when this democracy seems more threatened than ever. Fourth stop: Back in Detroit, where believers want to give the direction of the country.

Congregants at the 180o Church, which hosted Donald Trump last June, quietly pray for the establishment of a theocracy in America.

Molly Sewell waits, her smile splitting from ear to ear, outside the side door of the brick building in a drug-ridden Detroit neighborhood. The South Korean woman greets with tenderness the visitors who have answered the call of her husband, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, to “worship Jesus, who alone has the power to transform our lives.”

In the vestibule, a man holds out a basket not for us to put a bank note in, but for us to take a capsule, oddly resembling those in Nespresso coffee machines. The 180o Church capsule contains not coffee beans, but breadcrumbs and a spoonful of wine: the body and blood of Christ.

Inside, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell is in front of the stage. His hands are wrapped around a microphone. He implores God to forgive his sins, including gossiping, grumbling and lack of endurance.

Photo: Marco Bélair-Cirino Le Devoir The 180 Degree Church in Detroit

Without warning, he invites the faithful hanging on his every word to pray for the nation's political leaders, starting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Supreme Court justices. “We are a nation under God,” he says, closing his eyes.

According to the former drug dealer turned pastor, everyone must obey the Bible, which is “totally relevant to every subject it addresses,” even though it was written more than 1,500 years ago — something the director of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony failed to do, he denounces.

Lorenzo Sewell calls on his followers to refuse to let “the devil take hold of our children,” to have the features of French singer Philippe Katerine — who was surrounded by drag queens in a tableau vivant of Feast of the Godsby Giovanni Bellini at the kickoff of the last Summer Olympics — or a “trans bathroom.” “We have to say, ‘Enough is enough!’” ” he says, urging spectators who continue to flock to the nondenominational church to “use their vote as a weapon” on November 5.

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Some jump from their benches upholstered in blue satin fabric and raise their arms to the sky.

The pastor publicly supports the Republican Party, something he had resisted doing before Donald Trump visited the church in June and was invited to speak at the Republican convention in July. “Make Black America Great Again,” he says after doing a 180-degree turn in front of a diverse crowd of white and black people, young and old.

On stage, a teenage girl is baptized, having turned her back on “all false religions” and “her former sinful lifestyle.” The congregation smiles and prays. “Hallelujah. Hallelujah.” »

Christian pop music performed by nearly ten singers and musicians and amplified by large speakers makes the room vibrate.

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Voting according to the Bible

Pastor-entrepreneur Lorenzo Sewell, who now dreams 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.

California’s Debra Haley stopped by Detroit’s west side to see him in person.

Photo: Marco Bélair-Cirino Le Devoir Pastor Lorenzo Sewell and Christian Debra Haley at 180 Degrees Church in Detroit

To demonstrate the importance of faith in her life, she says she brings her “Bible into the voting booth” every time she exercises her right to vote. “I vote according to biblical principles,” the woman maintains.

She acknowledges that there is no political party that has a platform that is perfectly aligned with the Bible. So the “almost single-issue voter” looks at where the major candidates stand on two or three issues that are key to her, then chooses a side. “As long as I get what I want, you get what you want. That’s how I vote,” she says, urging policymakers to be “bold in their faith” and “stand up for what the Bible says.”

This is part of our Perspectives section.

Debra Haley excuses the failings of her favorite candidate for the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump. “The personality, forget it! [In a while] he will be gone. His policies, they will still be there. They will affect everybody’s life,” 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 x 4 and you see what I do. I am not going to bow down and pray.” I’m going to grab that 2×4 and try to beat you,” the unwitting “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” advocate 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 country's religious and racial diversity in the Detroit area, where “diverse religions or sects share the faith of this nascent society.” He notably meets the Catholic priest and former Michigan delegate to the House of Representatives, Gabriel Richard, in the midst of the religious fervor that forces the authorities to stop the circulation of horse-drawn carriages in the streets around churches on Sundays. Furthermore, he observes an “intimate union of the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty” unthinkable in Catholic France, especially since the revolution of 1789. “Next to each religion is a political opinion which, by affinity, is joined to it,” he notes.

The “human spirit […] will seek, if I dare say so, to harmonize the earth with the sky,” also writes Alexis de Tocqueville.

“Harmonizing the earth with the sky” is the dream of the faithful of the 180-degree church, including Pamela Griffin.

Last June, the woman waited two hours to see and hear Donald Trump, a politician who has turned Bible seller, at the church she has attended regularly for 15 years. She recalls 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 U.S. Constitution and its suite of amendments.

She is asked if she advocates establishing a theocracy in the United States, like Iran.

“Well, we don’t want the government to follow the Quran.”

— The Bible ?

— Yes, we do! We have to run the world with that. »

“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 families according to the Quran,” she adds.

Pamela Griffin is opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights, among other things. Paulette, her “sister in Christ,” is too. “Have you all accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord, your Savior?” the Christian evangelist asks while holding up a Bible.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell believes the Bible should “lead” government action. “That's what Jesus meant,” he replies after Le Devoir caught him 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 make the leap.”

A man comes up. He asks if he can pray for us. He puts down his Bible, takes our hands, asks a few questions, lowers his eyelids and begs God to give us protection and courage, and to prompt us to report accurately what we have seen and heard in church.

In the moral world, everything is classified, coordinated, planned, decided in advance. In the political world, everything is agitated, contested, uncertain; in the one, passive obedience, though voluntary; in the other, independence, contempt for experience and jealousy of all authority. Far from harming each other, these two tendencies, apparently so opposed, march in harmony and seem to lend each other mutual support.

— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-Le Devoir.