“And now you have given us a gift, President Donald Trump”
From the Washington Times:
President Trump has signed a declaration designating Sunday as a “Day of Prayer” for Hurricane Harvey victims.
The president said that is was appropriate “during times of great need to ask for God’s blessing and God’s guidance.”
He singed the declaration Friday after meeting with faith leaders in the Oval Office.
A transcript of the event can be read on the White House website here. Trump introduced the “faith leaders” thus:
And behind me, we have faith-based people who are highly respected, and especially so in their communities where they’re not only respected, but they’re loved — evangelical leaders, Christian leaders — many people of faith.
“Many people of faith” hints at a broad range of religious traditions, but those who spoke to thank Trump for signing the declaration and for overseeing disaster relief were mostly members of his Evangelical Executive Advisory Board (1) (Tom Mullins, Ralph Reed, Harry Jackson, and Paula White), alongside veteran Christian Right activist Gary Bauer and Frank Page (leader of the Southern Baptist Convention) and an unidentified “participant”. A photo of the occasion shows 15 or so “faith leaders” crowding around Trump – I don’t know them all, but there is no-one present who is recognisably from outside this strand of American Christianity (and White is the only woman).
There was also a prayer from Pastor Robert Jeffress, which Trump introduced ahead of the signing:
So I’m going to sign it, and then a few of the folks will say a few words, and Pastor Jeffress will say a prayer for not only the people so affected — so horribly affected by Hurricane Harvey, but for the people of the nation and, in fact, the people of our world.
The transcript does not record the prayer itself; as with some other White House pages, it merely indicates in brackets that “a prayer is offered”. However, a video of the prayer is available on CBN’s website, alongside the headline “National Day of Prayer: Read President Trump’s Full Statement Here”. For some reason, though, the “full statement” is not in fact present, and although the page did formerly have a transcript of Jeffress’s prayer even that is no longer available.
Here’s what Jeffress said (emphasis added):
Father, your word says, if your people who are called by your name will humble themselves and pray and seek your face, you will forgive their sins and heal their land.
Father, I thank you that we have a president, President Donald Trump, who believes in the power of prayer. We thank you for a vice president like Vice President Pence, who works alongside of him. And we thank you that the president had the wisdom to call our nation right now for a day of prayer this coming weekend, Father. This is what we need.
We pray for healing for our country. We pray for physical healing for those who have suffered the devastation from hurricane Harvey. Father, be with them. Provide for their needs. Help us to be the embodiment of Jesus Christ as we minister to them. But Father, we also want to pray for spiritual healing, emotional healing for our country.
This country has been bitterly divided for decades upon decades. And now you have given us a gift, President Donald Trump, who wants to bring healing to this country. And he is bringing healing to this country. And I pray that you would give him and Vice President Pence the wisdom they need to truly make our country the country you want us to be.
We want America to be great again. And we know that America can only be great, if America is good. And we know we have a president who wants to make America good. I pray your blessing upon him, the first lady, their family. Give them wisdom as they seek to honor you.
And we pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and died and rose again that we might have eternal life. It’s in his name that we pray. Amen.
The segue from reflection on those who have suffered loss in Texas to blatant political partisanship and unabashed political triumphalism would be laughable were it not so distasteful.
Right Wing Watch‘s Brian Tashman has Tweeted some commentary:
Robert Jeffress is the same pastor who said Satan is behind homosexuality, Islam, Mormonism and Roman Catholicism [Link; sources here and here]
Ramiro Pena, behind Trump, is a right-wing pastor from [Jim] Bakker’s “there’ll be a civil war if Trump’s impeached” [Link and source]
Harry Jackson said gay marriage is caused demonic activity and gays recruit kids like Hitler [Link and source]
Paula White recently said that opposition to Trump is opposition to God [Link and source]
Gary Bauer, who thinks gay people have sex with 150 people per year, also with Trump [Link and source]
Of course Ralph Reed, notorious for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff casino lobbying scandal, was with Trump [Link and source]
Ramiro Pena, behind Trump, pushed the discredited Seth Rich conspiracy hoax [Link and source]
I’ve previously blogged on White (dubbed “Trump’s God Whisperer” by the media) here; and a few days ago I noted Jeffress’s endorsement of a book called God and Donald Trump, which Jeffress enthused over as “a much-needed look at the undeniable hand of God working in our nation’s most recent presidential election”.
Some of the figures present in the Oval Office yesterday were also present at an earlier meeting with Evangelical leaders in July, after which Jeffress posted a photograph of himself with Trump to Facebook, describing it as “the ultimate selfie”.
UPDATE: A photo from the meeting is now Trump’s Twitter banner:
Footnote
(1) The Evangelical Executive Advisory Board was announced on Trump’s website in June 2016 as “a new executive board convened to provide advisory support to Mr. Trump on those issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America”, along with a list of members. That page has since been consigned to Wayback, but the list remains available on some other websites. The body is sometimes referred to as the “Religious Advisory Council”, “Religious Advisory Board” or “Faith Board”, which obscures its true nature.
Two members have resigned since it was formed: Pastor James McDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago left in October 2016, after Trump’s lewd “grab them by the pussy” comments came to light, while Pastor A.R. Bernard of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, whose mother was black, recently quit over Trump’s initial comments on violence in Charlottesville.
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