PENTECOSTAL PASTOR AND TRUMP SPIRITUAL ADVISER

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., a Maryland pastor who bridged faith and politics, emerging as a fiery voice for Black evangelicals while championing conservative positions on same-sex marriage and abortion, advocating for criminal justice reform and serving as a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, died Nov. 9 at his home in Silver Spring. He was 67.

He had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2005 and had a stroke later that year, but recovered to continue preaching. Rickardo Bodden, the chief of staff at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, confirmed the death but said he did not know the cause.

As senior pastor at Hope Christian, Jackson led a Pentecostal congregation of about 1,500 members and built a national profile through radio commentary, magazine columns and television appearances. He called himself a “Biblical conservative and social reformer,” accused liberal Black ministers of being out of touch with their congregations and founded the High Impact Leadership Coalition to bring together evangelical pastors.

Jackson cited biblical scripture while condemning abortion and same-sex marriage, which he once called part of “a Satanic plot to destroy our seed.” In 2005 he introduced a “Black Contract With America on Moral Values,” alluding to the legislative agenda of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, RGa.

Even as he backed conservative politicians, he pushed leaders of both parties — including Trump — to promote economic development in low-income neighborhoods and overhaul the criminal justice system, in part through sentencing changes for drug offenders and better rehabilitation for former inmates. “The old labels of Democrat and Republican, left and right, have outlived their usefulness,” he once told the Baltimore Sun. “Whoever supports a moral platform is fine by me.”