He’s calling for fellow Republicans to join him to #RestoreOurGOP and had discussed concerns with friends in the party, such as Jaime Herrera Beutler. Kinzinger said Christians in Congress may, in good faith, take opposite stances, but he also sees them holding a unique responsibility to consider the spiritual implications of their decisions. Last year, before Marjorie Taylor Greene controversially became the first open QAnon adherent elected to the US House, he said the conspiracy was a “fabrication” and had “no place in Congress.” Prior to the election being called for Joe Biden, Kinzinger urged people to stop using “debunked misinformation” to claim fraud and refused to challenge state results without solid evidence in court. He has a conservative voting record and is outspoken in his stance against abortion, recently urging congressional leaders to preserve the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.īut unlike most Republicans in Congress, Kinzinger has been openly critical about conspiracies spreading baseless claims that the election was stolen from Trump.
#CHRISTIAN GAY BARS ATLANTA TRIAL#
Political analysts say it will likely cost him politically, though, and will at minimum isolate him from his party ahead of the impeachment trial set to begin the week of February 8.Īt 42, Kinzinger has served in Congress for a decade and has been part of the church all his life he was raised Baptist and now attends Village Christian Church in Minooka, Illinois. Kinzinger said that despite the opposition, the stance was the easiest of his career. “It makes you wonder what the thirty pieces of silver were that Speaker Pelosi promised for this betrayal,” the evangelist remarked.Ī relative sent the congressman a certified letter accusing him of “doing the Devil’s work.” The backlash was swift, coming from Kinzinger’s district in northern Illinois, where a majority of Republicans disagreed, and from his fellow believers, with many white evangelicals continuing to support Trump even as his false claims encouraged rioters at the Capitol.įranklin Graham condemned Kinzinger and the other Republicans who voted for impeachment for turning their back on the president despite the good he had done on issues like abortion, foreign affairs, and religious freedom. In the days after the attack, Kinzinger called on Christian leaders “to lead the flock back into the truth.” He opposed President Donald Trump for continuing to tout claims that the election had been stolen and was one of ten House Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment. But I am a person who shares the faith and who looks at what that’s done to the political system in this country, and I decided to speak out.”
“Although I’m not great at citing verse and chapter, I know the Bible speaks quite a bit about conspiracies and about allowing that darkness into your heart, about the importance of truth, the importance of being a light in dark places, of being truth,” he said on a call with CT and other news outlets this week. But he saw serious implications for both in the wake of the Capitol breach and felt convicted to speak out. Kinzinger, a nondenominational Protestant, doesn’t talk much about his faith in public and is wary of conflating the mission of the church with the work of politics. “But I just felt a real darkness over this place, like a real evil.” It’s probably only happened maybe twice in my life,” the Illinois congressman said. “I’m not one of these people that senses evil all the time or anything. And he could feel the spiritual weight of what was unfolding. He heard the flash-bangs go off on the steps as rioters made their way inside. Adam Kinzinger could see a little bit of the crowd on the lawn on January 6.