He was the star attraction two years ago, the keynoter introduced as “North Carolina’s next governor,” the perfect messenger to encourage church leaders to run for office and govern on biblical principles.
This year his name wasn’t even mentioned.
At an American Renewal Project luncheon held at Clearview Baptist Church in Henderson on Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for the state’s highest office, was nowhere to be seen. Some 200 church leaders who gathered for a boxed lunch of Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches heard instead from a former governor, the political commentator and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.
Mired in scandal after a set of disturbing comments he allegedly made on a porn site, Robinson, the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee, is now talked about only in hushed tones.
But that doesn’t mean he has lost support from his chief promoters and allies: white evangelical church leaders and Republican party loyalists.
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“I do not know what’s true and what’s not true,” said Dwight Frazier, a church member at Central Baptist Church in Henderson who attended the luncheon. “Everybody has something that’s wrong in their past and does some things they wouldn’t be proud of. I think he loves the Lord and I think he’s trying to do the right thing. He’s still a good man, in my opinion.”
Last week, CNN published a damning report alleging that Robinson had posted regularly from 2008-2012 at a porn site called Nude Africa. In those posts he called himself a “Black NAZI,” praised Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” and wrote “(s)lavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves.” The sexual fantasies he posted were so salacious CNN wouldn’t publish some of them.
Robinson denied he made the comments and has insisted on staying in the race, but most of his senior campaign staff members have resigned. The Republican Governors Association took down its pro-Robinson ads.
A fiery speaker, Robinson has spent years cultivating Black and white evangelical church members with a message that aligns closely with their conservative values. Since first winning office as lieutenant governor in 2020, he has defined himself as a culture warrior, decrying “transgenderism and homosexuality” as “filth,” calling for eliminating the state Board of Education and opposing abortion (though he acknowledged that he and his then future wife terminated a pregnancy in 1989).
The American Renewal Project’s founder and leader, David Lane, a Dallas political operative, maintained this week that Robinson was a “brilliant” choice to lead the group’s push to get more evangelicals running for office.
Of the 19 pastor luncheons the organization held in 2022, eight were in North Carolina. Robinson was the headline speaker at all the North Carolina events, during which pastors and church leaders laid hands on his back and prayed for him. Robinson was also a headliner in 2021 and 2023, but this year he decided not to participate in the project’s events.
“I don’t know what’s truth and untruth in terms of the allegations against him, but I don’t regret all that we did,” said Lane. “He was fabulous. It’s just that, from a biblical standpoint, Old and New Testament, man is born in sin.”
Instead of Robinson, Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, whose daughter, Sarah, is now governor there, spoke to an overwhelmingly white and older crowd of about 200 church members and Republican Party operatives. Huckabee spoke on the twin issues Robinson liked to invoke, opposition to abortion and trans rights.
“The issue is not how many weeks, it’s personhood, and personhood begins at conception,” Huckabee intoned. He then condemned teenagers asserting a different gender identity: “You’re not in the wrong body, because God put you in the body he gave you.”
Also speaking at the luncheon were two American Renewal Project stalwarts, both pastors: Bladen County Commissioner Cameron McGill and North Carolina state Rep. Neal Jackson of Randolph County.
Speaking to a reporter after the event, Jackson, who still serves as pastor of Beulah Baptist Church in Bennett, North Carolina, acknowledged that the allegations against Robinson are “serious and deplorable.”
“If they are true, then I am very saddened and greatly, greatly disappointed,” Jackson said. “But I think time will play out and truth will come out.”
In either case, Jackson added, he would not vote for Robinson’s Democratic challenger, Attorney General Josh Stein.
Yonat Shimron is a national reporter and senior editor for Religion News Service.
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16 Responses
It stands to reason a thorough and careful investigation needs to be made into Mark Robinson’s past posts on porn and social media. If true I can’t figure out why so many Evangelicals would still support him. I guess it’s no longer about morals and now about policies.
Evangelicals support Robinson for the same reason they support Trump; there’s not much they’re unwilling to overlook or justify in a candidate if it will get them closer to power and control.
Character and honesty only matter to them if the OTHER guy doesn’t have it.
Evangelicals have sold their entire witness for a bowl of stew- or in this case, a court that will vote their way (and end up causing more abortions AND more maternal deaths!)
Well CNN has a reputation of reporting fake news stories, so I am glad to see that Mark Robinson is going to pursue legal action. I agree that this story CNN published is salacious tabloid trash. It seems to me that the left will go as low as they can to ruin someone’s reputation that they don’t like.
He used his own name on the profile. All the biographical details match up. Also, this information shouldn’t be needed to change your mind on Robinson. He’s gone on the record saying so many awful things.
Just to add… an excerpt from The Washington Post:
“…Robinson’s campaign announced Sunday that four senior leaders had stepped down: campaign manager Chris Rodriguez; general consultant Conrad Pogorzelski III; finance director Heather Whillier; and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk…..”
It makes one wonder.
In addition to the resignations mentioned above, I just saw this headline from the Raleigh “New & Observer”:
“Half of NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s state staff quits, days after campaign staff exodus”
“State staff” refers too: “…his staff in the lieutenant governor’s office….”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article292982684.html
You know why Robinson has taken so long to hire a law firm? Few law firms will touch it because CNN has uncovered quite the digital trail of evidence…AND there are multiple eye witnesses to Robinson frequenting porn video shops several years ago.
Slander will be VERY hard to prove, so Robinson is finding a creative angle to appease his supporters and make it look like he’s putting up a fight. (I look forward to the legal language that will be used).
And let’s not act like both sides don’t go low.
Given Robinson’s track record over the last decade, I keep asking – were there NO other Republicans to put up for NC governor? NONE? This was a HUGE political gamble, and it’s costing the NC GOP.
Also, tech experts had offered their assistance to Robinson to investigate the allegations in order to prove the allegations were false. Robinson declined the offer.
Justin “the left” isn’t a concept it’s people, fellow Americans who are not your enemies. In fact some of “the left”even sit in the pew next to you at church. Surprised?
As for ruining reputations, shall we talk about Haitian men and women minding their own business legally working, living in Springfield OH? Mr Trump and Mr Vance knowingly spread false stories about them eating pets which the city and the Republican governor have vigorously debunked. Have these two men retracted their hateful lies? No.
Last I checked Trump and Vance are not on “the left” yet Mr Trump constantly calls people names and puts others down even posting “I hate Taylor Swift” on his social media. Such a presidential thing to say.
Wake up my brother. Character matters. If any politician- Democrat or Republican- is doing wrong like posting racist stuff on porn sites that person should be called out by christians.
Very well said. Thank you for your calmness.
Can you name some specific “fake news stories” CNN broadcast. If so, did they retract them once the error was pointed out?
” I agree that this story CNN published is salacious tabloid trash. ”
You have specific evidence the story is incorrect?
I guess the Republicans learned nothing from the Herschel Walker debacle. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/turbulent-doomed-campaign-herschel-walker-rcna60565
Evangelicals really love hypocrisy and hate.
What does it do to our Christian witness when the only people left supporting a twisted pervert are evangelical Christians?
Should it not be a wakeup call for us having lost our way?
Although, his devotion to certain types of porn is new information, none of this is out of character. He has a history of saying outrageous things. In fact that is partly what propelled him into his political career.
This piece does not characterize the “evangelicals” in the way the author intended. Instead of seeming bigoted and thick-headed as the author seems to intend, these evangelicals appear to be people who are so underserved by a journalist establishment that they cannot be sure whether to trust the facts presented to them. And so they are left to rely on their own information and experience of the topic and person, of whether what the person is saying seems truthful and whether that person seems trustworthy. Unfortunately, this is a natural consequence of a deeply-biased media: when people see that an author’s (or editor’s) personal opinions are the main tributary to their reporting (or choosing in editorial capacities), it is hard to trust the facts. Such is the case in this piece.
There is plenty of great reporting on this issue. Unfortunately, this article cannot be included in that. It is merely opinion spotted with a few facts. The words in this piece are charged: “white” with evangelicals, the strange side-jab that Huckabee “condemned” teenagers who were struggling with gender identity… This needs an “opinion” label.
The great irony comes that there was an editorial decision made to include this article as a legitimate source of information, as an “opinion” label has been deliberately left off.
And, while my own experience does not constitute a “trend,” I have noticed that this issue with Mark Robinson seems to have given more evangelicals who have supported him in the past (or at least some of what he has said) pause. They seem to be rethinking some of the rush to support people who have policy opinions they like.
Just some thoughts.