{"id":2020,"date":"2011-05-16T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2011-05-16T06:00:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T12:00:03","slug":"donald-trumps-elite-christian-posse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2020","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump’s Elite Christian Posse"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mike Huckabee, the popular ex-Governor of Arkansas and former Presidential candidate,\u00a0announced that he would not make another\u00a0White House run<\/a>, one of his potential competitors, Donald Trump,\u00a0said:<\/p>\n

“A lot of people are very happy that he will not be running, especially other candidates, so Mike enjoy the show.\u00a0 The ratings are terrific. Good luck.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s about what you would expect from Donald Trump,\u00a0the millionaire mogul known for owning casinos<\/a>, starring in\u00a0The\u00a0Apprentice<\/em>,\u00a0cursing in public and,\u00a0living out his heretofore unknown Christian\u00a0values.\u00a0 I’m quite certain that Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor,\u00a0has a more Biblical view of life, starting with God’s providential hand of blessing.\u00a0 Lady luck might be worshipped in Trump’s casinos, but it has precious little to do\u00a0with the rise and fall of television ratings or\u00a0Presidential candidacies.<\/p>\n

Maybe it would be a good idea for Donald Trump’s newly formed\u00a0elite Christian posse to inform him that life is not all about luck.\u00a0 However, if Paula White — Founder and Pastor of Without Walls International Church — is leading the posse, then\u00a0luck, otherwise known in some Christian circles as the “health, wealth, and prosperity gospel,”–will be music to Trump’s ears.\u00a0 After all, we are in an age where so-called Christian pastors will tickle the ears of their hearers.\u00a0 Whether in a mega-church in Tampa or Lakeland or in Donald Trump’s office in New York City, some pastors will bend over backwards to tell people what they want to hear, not necessarily what they need to hear.\u00a0 And, there’s a big difference.<\/p>\n

In this year’s Republican Presidential sweepstakes, if candidates talk a good conservative game, Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network\u00a0appears more than willing to\u00a0overlook the less than Christian\u00a0walk of the prospective candidates.\u00a0 In\u00a0at least his tenth “exclusive” with or about Donald Trump<\/a>, \u00a0David Brody, CBN News’\u00a0Chief Political Correspondent, reveals that a group of\u00a0Chrisian pastors recently\u00a0met with Trump for a\u00a0“prayer meeting.”\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 With this many exclusives, one might begin to think that the CHRISTIAN Broadcasting Network<\/em> will support\u00a0any candidates —\u00a0even\u00a0those\u00a0who easily\u00a0drop the\u00a0F bomb in public<\/a>\u00a0— just\u00a0as long as\u00a0they are\u00a0not Democrats.\u00a0 It’s good to know that CBN has such high Christian standards!<\/p>\n

In a prayer meeting and Q & A session that took place on Thursday, May 12,\u00a0the Donald met with a group of Christian pastors and some of their wives.\u00a0 Paula White, a friend of Trump’s, was the only pastor of this “elite” group whose name was publicly confirmed by Michael Cohen, Trump\u2019s Executive Vice President and Special Counsel.\u00a0 I can’t wait to hear what other “elite”\u00a0pastors met with Donald Trump last Thursday.\u00a0 That Mr. Cohen would use “elite” to describe Christian pastors\u00a0belies such a profound misunderstanding of Jesus’ words,<\/span> “I have come to serve, not to be served,” and<\/span><\/span> “The first shall be last, and the last first.”<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I just hope that no Southern Baptist pastors, particularly those who are employed by the SBC, attended this meeting.\u00a0 If I had to guess, I would say that those in attendance were a veritable who’s who of the charismatic, “health, wealth, and prosperity gospel” crowd\u00a0who are popular staples on TBN.\u00a0 It’s shocking that\u00a0pastors like this\u00a0would be investigated for alleged financial misconduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I suppose that some of these pastors, who may live lavish lifestyles more suited for Hollywood celebrities than servants of Christ, felt at home in the presence of Donald Trump.\u00a0 After all, when you think of Trump, you usually think money.\u00a0 When “name it and claim it” pastors like Paula White\u00a0think of Trump, they usually think money.\u00a0 Heck, most of their teachings are predicated on sowing seeds (i.e., send us your money).\u00a0 Can you say co-opted?\u00a0 Bamboozled?\u00a0 Hoodwinked?\u00a0 Sold?<\/p>\n

How else to explain what one pastor said about Mr. Trump’s potential White House bid:<\/p>\n

“One pastor said that God has clearly put the desire in Trump\u2019s heart to run for the presidency.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow!\u00a0 Not only do we have an elite Christian posse meeting with Trump; at least one of these self-professed Christian pastors knows — KNOWS — that God has moved on the heart of a casino-owning, filth-spewing, self-loving (read “arrogant”) man who has never been known for his personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.\u00a0 I hope that the “Christian” pastor who made such an obviously foolish and inane comment will take credit for what he said.<\/p>\n

If you were unconvinced that this group of Christian pastors\u00a0have no clue as to the real needs of our country, then perhaps their\u00a0encouragement\u00a0to Mr. Trump about what\u00a0ails America will convince you that\u00a0the brand of Christianity they are selling is\u00a0defective at best and fraudulent at worst:<\/p>\n

“They told Trump that America needs to restore its brand of greatness and said the country is bleeding.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Restore America’s brand of greatness?\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0\u00a0That’s the\u00a0best these Christian pastors could come up with?\u00a0 In a nation which is bleeding because of spiritual poverty, you have preachers\u00a0talking about the\u00a0“American brand.”\u00a0 Woe unto those who say, “‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy, and need nothing,’ and you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The blind leading the blind.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter how many Christian pastors meet with Donald Trump.\u00a0 Neither he nor anyone else in the White House\u00a0is going to restore America to greatness.\u00a0 Mike Huckabee, who will not even be running for President, would most likely tell you that he could not restore America’s brand to greatness.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because only God can do that.\u00a0 Only God can stop the bleeding.\u00a0 And the only way that will happen is when the Good News — the Gospel — of the Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed throughout the land and America experiences the blessings of a nation whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12).\u00a0 Before any of this happens<\/p>\n

“My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”<\/span> (2 Chronicles 7:14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For anyone, particularly conservative Christians, to\u00a0think that Donald Trump and his elite Christian posse will lead us to greatness once again is placing\u00a0their bet on a sure loser.\u00a0 I’m just surprised that certain pastors — known for their money-raising prowess — are so eager to put their money down on Trump.\u00a0 But, then again, you know what they say about fools and their money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Mike Huckabee, the popular ex-Governor of Arkansas and former Presidential candidate,\u00a0announced that he would not make another\u00a0White House run, one of his potential competitors, Donald Trump,\u00a0said: “A lot of people are very happy that he will not be running, especially other candidates, so Mike enjoy the show.\u00a0 The ratings are terrific. Good luck.” That’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,35],"tags":[201,223,287,322,483,589,656,692,763,767,830,956,968,970,1002,1050],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","tag-cbn","tag-christian-values","tag-david-brody","tag-donald-trump","tag-health-wealth-prosperity-gospel","tag-lady-luck","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-name-it-and-claim-it","tag-pat-robertson","tag-paula-white","tag-republican-presidential-candidates","tag-tbn","tag-the-apprentice","tag-the-brody-file","tag-trump-casinos","tag-without-walls-international-church"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-wA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}