By Agencies
The USA White House hosted a dinner on Monday (Aug. 27) for about 100 Christian leaders and senior-level officials, honoring evangelicals, as one participant explained, “for all the good work they do.”
Calling America “a nation of believers,” President Trump said the initiative was aimed at celebrating “America’s heritage of faith, family and freedom.”
“As you know, in recent years the government tried to undermine religious freedom, but the attacks on communities of faith are over,” the president said. “We’ve ended it. We’ve ended it. Unlike some before us, we are protecting your religious liberty.”
Trump also took the opportunity to press evangelicals to turn out their supporters on Election Day later this year, according to an audio recording of the event leaked to The New York Times.
“I just ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote,” Trump told the crowd, according to the Times. “Because if they don’t — it’s Nov. 6 — if they don’t vote we’re going to have a miserable two years and we’re going to have, frankly, a very hard period of time because then it just gets to be one election — you’re one election away from losing everything you’ve got.”
Trump then appeared to claim that if Democrats win, they “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently.”
Attendees such as Paula White, a Florida pastor who serves as one of Trump’s closest spiritual advisers, said the event followed an afternoon of meetings between the evangelical leaders and White House officials. Others said the agenda of those meetings included issues important to both the administration and conservative evangelicals, such as religious freedom, immigration reform, criminal justice and prison reform and judicial nominations.
White, who called the event a “beautiful, memorable evening,” said, “Every table was hosted by a Cabinet member, senior adviser and — of course — the president and vice president had their own tables.”
According to a tweet by Johnnie Moore, a public relations consultant who serves as the unofficial spokesman for an informal group of evangelicals who advise the president, invitations for the event were sent more than six weeks ago.
One participant, Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, described the event to Fox News as a “beautiful state dinner,” and claimed it “almost turned into a campaign rally,” with evangelicals in attendance spontaneously standing and speaking about why they support the president.
Faith & Freedom Coalition founder and Chairman Ralph Reed said evangelicals have a “tremendous amount of appreciation and gratitude” for Trump and his administration.
“There’s a deep appreciation in the evangelical community for President Trump and his administration for making religious freedom, the sanctity of life, support for the state of Israel and many other public policy concerns such high priorities,” he said.
That was echoed in a gift White reportedly presented to the president and first lady on behalf of the group: a Bible signed by more than 100 evangelicals and carrying the inscription, “We appreciate the price that you have paid to walk in the high calling. History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations.”
Trump in his remarks told attendees, “The support you’ve given me has been incredible, but I really don’t feel guilty because I have given you a lot back — just about everything I promised, and, as one of our great pastors just said, ‘Actually, you’ve given us much more, sir, than you’ve promised,’ and I think that’s true in many respects.”
