I suspect that it will be exactly the kind of meeting that Trump wants: One where he can mouth a few platitudes and those Evangelicals who are desperate for power and influence will emerge gravely pronouncing themselves “satisfied” that he is in their corner. Of course, they’ll maintain their “reservations” — including their professed distaste for his racist rhetoric, disrespect for women, and habitual lying — but they’ll fall in line.
Evangelical leaders: If you back Trump, for the rest of your days, you will be forced to live with having had a hand in fracturing our nation on the basis of race, discarding the sanctity of marriage, and scorning honesty itself — all for the chance, the remote chance, that Trump will make one or two decent Supreme Court picks. You will be selling your integrity for the most meager of returns.
Christians have had to take tougher stands in darker times before. They do so in other nations today. This decision, by contrast, should be easy. Trump is not worth your consideration or even one moment of your time. Let others bend the knee.
June 21, 2016 Donald Trump
“Ahead of Meeting, Evangelicals Sense Leverage Over Trump”
Tim Alberta at National Review
June 21, 2016 Donald Trump
“Trump’s Meeting with Evangelical Leaders Marks the End of the Christian Right”
Michael Farris at The Christian Post
Today, a candidate whose worldview is greed and whose god is his appetites (Philippians 3) is being tacitly endorsed by this throng.
They are saying we are Republicans no matter what the candidate believes and no matter how vile and unrepentant his character.
They are not a phalanx of God’s prophets confronting a wicked leader, this is a parade of elephants.
In 1980 I believed that Christians could dramatically influence politics. Today, we see politics fully influencing a thousand Christian leaders. This is a day of mourning.
June 21, 2016 Donald Trump
“Trump’s Meeting with Evangelicals”
Elizabeth Dias for Time
“Donald Trump Meets with 1,000 ‘Enthusiastic’ Faith Leaders in New York City”
“10 Points to Take Away from the Meeting with the Evangelicals”
Larry Tomczak at Charisma News
“Trump Is Surrounding Himself With Evangelical Pastors”
The meeting was spearheaded by United in Purpose, Bill Dallas and My Faith Votes, and Johnnie Moore. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, had positive interaction with Trump at the meeting.
June 21, 2016 Donald Trump
Inside Trump’s Closed-Door Meeting, Held to Reassure ‘The Evangelicals’
Sarah McCammon at NPR
June 21, 2016 Kenneth Copeland
“‘Donald Trump’s New Evangelical Adviser Was Sure God Had Chosen Ted Cruz to Be President’ Oops.”
Huffington Post
This report references a January meeting where Copeland was talking about a Ted Cruz presidency.
June 22, 2016 Donald Trump
“Who’s Who of Trump’s ‘Tremendous’ Faith Advisers”
Kate Shellnutt and Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra at Christianity Today
This article contains a list of all the faith advisors.
June 22, 2016 Donald Trump
“Trump Struggles to Close the Deal with Evangelicals”
Tim Alberta at National Review
“The Bible is full of men and women that repeatedly made grave errors,” says Gary Bauer, the longtime activist leader and 2000 presidential candidate who also backed Cruz in 2016. “Who is it that they’re holding up as this paragon, a man or woman without sin that they could have nominated for president? There’s only one person who fits that description, and when he returns the election will be canceled.”
June 22, 2016 Richard Land
“Why I Joined Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board”
The Christian Post
June 22, 2016 Eric Metaxas
Response to Trump Meeting with Evangelicals
The Mike Gallagher Show
June 22, 2016 Mike Gallagher
#NeverTrump Needs a Name Change
Townhall
And I ask fellow Americans who continue to be mystified at the destructive efforts of some of their former allies in the Republican Party to borrow a page from history and call them what they are: “Republicans for Hillary.” Never again will I call them part of the Never Trump movement. This game of pretending that to be Never Trump doesn’t lead to a President Hillary Clinton has to end.
June 23, 2016 Donald Trump
Pentecostal Leaders Pack Out Trump’s New Christian Advisory Board
Aysha Khan at Charisma News
The article lists all members of Evangelical Executive Advisory Board:
Michele Bachmann—former U.S. House member
A.R. Bernard—senior pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural Center
Mark Burns—pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship Center
Tim Clinton—president, American Association of Christian Counselors
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland—founders,