Donald Trump met with some 1000 evangelical leaders at Trump Tower in New York City yesterday. \u00a0He promised them that he would end the ban on politicking for tax-exempt organizations like churches. \u00a0He also said that he would appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices. \u00a0He also said that he would emphasize religious liberty, including allowing government\u00a0employees\u00a0to offer sectarian\u00a0prayer\u00a0in public and making department store employees say \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em> said that the attendees were thrilled with Trump, but his critics among evangelicals were not invited. \u00a0One of them, recalling the movement\u2019s former insistence on moral character, said that the spectacle marks \u201cthe end of the Christian right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Donald Trump won a standing ovation from hundreds of Christian conservatives who\u00a0came to New York City on Tuesday with a somewhat\u00a0skeptical but willing attitude toward a man who has divided their group with comments on women, immigrants and Islam. In his comments, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he would\u00a0end the decades-old ban on tax-exempt groups\u2019 \u2014 including churches \u2014 politicking, called\u00a0religious liberty\u00a0\u201cthe No. 1 question,\u201d and promised to\u00a0appoint antiabortion Supreme Court justices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity \u2014\u00a0and other religions\u00a0\u2014 is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it,\u201d Trump said. A ban was put in place by President Lyndon Johnson on tax-exempt groups making explicit political endorsements. Religious leaders in America today, Trump\u00a0said, \u201care petrified.\u201d<\/p>\n
As president, he said, he\u2019d work on things including: \u201cfreeing up your religion, freeing up your thoughts. You talk about religious liberty and religious freedom, you don\u2019t have any religious freedom if you think about it,\u201d he told the group, which broke in many times with applause.<\/p>\n
Throughout the talk Trump emphasized that America was hurting due to\u00a0what he described as Christianity\u2019s slide to become \u201cweaker, weaker, weaker.\u201d He said he\u2019d get department store employees to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d and would\u00a0fight restrictions on public employees, such as public school coaches, from being allowed to lead sectarian prayer on the field.<\/p>\n
The audience included leaders and founders of many segments of the Christian Right, the evangelical movement that began in the 1970s under people including the late Jerry Falwell. Among those present and involved in the program Tuesday were Focus on the Family founder James Dobson (who is no longer with that group), former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and evangelist Franklin Graham (son of evangelical icon Billy Graham).<\/p>\n
[Keep reading. . .]\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But also read this statement from my former colleague Mike Farris<\/a>:<\/p>\n
I attended the very first meeting of the Moral Majority held in Indianapolis in February of 1980. I was the Washington state director of the MM and have been a leader of the \u201cChristian right\u201d ever since.<\/p>\n
Today an estimated 1,000 evangelical leaders are making a pilgrimage to Trump Tower to \u201clisten\u201d to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The organizer of this meeting came to my office to tell me in person why I wasn\u2019t being invited. I had been too vocal in my anti-Trump views.<\/p>\n
I appreciated his courtesy in coming to me and he agreed that the obvious implication of the meeting was to rally support for Trump.<\/p>\n
While I don\u2019t question the motives of those who are trekking to the Tower, I strongly dissent from the wisdom of their chosen path.<\/p>\n
This meeting marks the end of the Christian Right.<\/p>\n
The premise of the meeting in 1980 was that only candidates that reflected a biblical worldview and good character would gain our support.<\/p>\n
Today, a candidate whose worldview is greed and whose god is his appetites (Philippians 3) is being tacitly endorsed by this throng.<\/p>\n
They are saying we are Republicans no matter what the candidate believes and no matter how vile and unrepentant his character.<\/p>\n
They are not a phalanx of God\u2019s prophets confronting a wicked leader, this is a parade of elephants.<\/p>\n
In 1980 I believed that Christians could dramatically influence politics. Today, we see politics fully influencing a thousand Christian leaders.<\/p>\n
This is a day of mourning.
\nRead more at http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/trump-meeting-evangelical-leaders-end-of-the-christian-right-165473\/#bBZGW2GyMfkQALcW.99
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