BUT his craven theocratic Evangelical advisory board remains 100% pro-fascism/oligarchy hoping to turn America into a real ‘Handmaid’s Tale’.
A mix of radical far right born-again preachers, televangelists and ultra-conservative political influencers, still stands with Trump. God, they say, chose him… no matter what! Nazi sympathizer? No problem! He’s “pro-life!”
As the Guardian notes, Trump was forced to disband two business advisory councils and an infrastructure panel after some of America’s most prominent business leaders fled their posts, protesting against Trump’s statements appeasing white nationalist KKK marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But the president’s evangelical advisory board still stands with God’s “chosen” one.
Not only have evangelical leaders avoided any criticism of Trump, most are still openly supportive of Trump’s race-baiting statements assigning blame “on many sides” for an act of domestic white Christian terror, and slamming those who turned up to oppose the militant pro-Nazis.
Jerry Falwell Jr even tweeted: “Finally, a leader in the White House. Jobs returning, North Korea backing down, bold truthful statement about Charlottesville tragedy. So proud of Donald Trump.”
The members of Trump’s evangelical ‘Handmaid’s Tale Advisory Board’ (as I think of them) were listed by the Guardian:
Michele Bachmann
former Republican politician
Bachmann briefly ran for the White House in 2012. A founder of the Tea Party Caucus of super-conservative members of Congress, she represented Minnesota from 2007 to 2015. She and her husband, Max, own a controversial ultra-Christian counseling service and fiercely campaigned for the prohibition of same-sex marriage.
A.R Bernard
senior pastor, founder and chief executive of the Christian Cultural Center
Bernard left a career in banking to take up ministry with his wife, Karen, and they now run a 37,000-member “megachurch” in Brooklyn, New York. Bernard has advised New York mayors of both parties and is a city education and community adviser.
Mark Burns
pastor, Harvest Praise & Worship Center
Famed in the world of gospel as a preacher from the age of 16, Burns is a so-called televangelist and a co-founder of a Christian television network, which broadcasts his sermons from his church in South Carolina. He was a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump during his presidential campaign.
Tim Clinton
Clinton is president of the American Association of Christian Counselors, the largest organization of Christian counselors in the world, based in Virginia, with 50,000 members. In 2014, it removed the promotion of conversion therapy for homosexuals from its code of ethics, encouraging gay people to be celibate instead. Clinton is a prolific religious author.
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland
founders, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
A televangelist from Texas, Kenneth is associated with the charismatic movement, which shifts mainstream congregations closer to Pentecostalism, a faith that believes in speaking in tongues and divine healing. He preaches the prosperity gospel, claiming that wealth and health are God-given gifts.
James Dobson
founder, Focus on the Family
A psychologist by profession, Dobson founded the traditionalist pressure group in 1977 in Colorado. He is a powerful promoter of a strictly religious social agenda, including the abstinence-only sex education policy popular under George W Bush, and an advocate of teaching creationism.
Jerry Falwell Jr
president, Liberty University
Falwell runs the world’s largest evangelical Christian university, in Virginia, originally founded by his late father, the legendary TV pastor and conservative activist Jerry Falwell. In 2015, Falwell Jr encouraged more students to get permits to carry concealed guns, in response to the massacre in San Bernardino, California, saying: “We could end those Muslims before they even walked in.”
Ronnie Floyd
senior pastor, Cross church
Floyd is a prolific producer of religious books, podcasts and televised sermons. He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2014 to 2016, an enormous Baptist denomination rooted in the historically white-dominated power structure of the southern US.
Jentezen Franklin
senior pastor, Free Chapel Worship Center
Franklin is the author of several books on the New York Times bestseller list, including The Spirit of Python: Exposing Satan’s Plan to Squeeze the Life Out of You, and Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Intimate, More Powerful Relationship with God.
Jack Graham
senior pastor, Prestonwood Baptist church
Ordained as a pastor at the age of 20 while studying at university in Abilene, Texas, Graham is also a past president, twice, of the Southern Baptist Convention. His ministry boasts 42,000 members in the Dallas-Forth Worth “metroplex” urban area.
Harry Jackson
senior pastor, Hope Christian church
Jackson is a Pentecostal bishop in Maryland, and a prominent activist for socially conservative causes, especially opposing gay marriage and abortion. He is co-founder of a church initiative aimed at improving race relations.
Robert Jeffress
senior pastor, First Baptist church of Dallas
Jeffress hosts the religious TV and radio show Pathway to Victory, broadcast across the US and 28 countries.
He is a Fox News contributor who has called LGBT people miserable and filthy, Catholicism a pagan religion, and Islam “evil, evil”, and slammed Mormonism, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
David Jeremiah
senior pastor, Shadow Mountain Community church
Jeremiah is a preacher in a megachurch near San Diego that regularly attracts a congregation of 10,000 on Sundays. He records his sermons for his radio and television program, Turning Point, and is the author of 54 Christian books.
Richard Land
president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, North Carolina
An adviser to candidate Trump during the election campaign, Land opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. He stirred up controversy by accusing the Obama administration of using the killing of Trayvon Martin to stir up racial tension and attract black voters.
James MacDonald
founder, Harvest Bible Chapel
Canadian-born, now preaches near Chicago. Host of the Walk in the Word TV program, which received the Billy Graham award for excellence in Christian communication in 2012. Produces religious feature films and songs.
Johnnie Moore
author and president of the Kairos company
Kairos is a faith-based public relations and consultancy firm, based in California. Moore has served as a religious adviser to several US presidents as well as the presidential hopeful Ben Carson. He wrote the bestseller Defying Isis.
Robert Morris
senior pastor, Gateway church, Texas
Morris is a preacher in the Dallas-Forth Worth urban “metroplex”, with a weekly attendance of 36,000 at a multi-site megachurch. He preaches against the faithful gossiping on social media.
Tom Mullins
senior pastor, Christ Fellowship, Florida
Mullins runs the 10th-largest church in the US, a megachurch in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with his wife, Julie. He streams weekend services via a smartphone app and live online. He is opposed to abortion rights. He has said he would advise any president, regardless of party.
Ralph Reed
founder, Faith and Freedom Coalition
Reed is a conservative political activist. Active in the Republican party, he tried unsuccessfully to run for the position of lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006. Reed was implicated in a money-laundering scandal involving the gambling industry and corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
James Robinson
founder, Life Outreach International
A prominent conservative religious leader and political influencer of the early 1980s, Robinson lost his TV preaching spot with a Dallas station after a sermon calling homosexuality a sin. He returned to political-leaning religious circles during the Obama administration and campaigned against Barack Obama.
Tony Suarez
executive vice-president, National Hispanic Christian leadership conference
Suarez has declared a mission “to reconcile Billy Graham’s message of salvation with Martin Luther King’s prophetic activism”. He is based in Virginia. During the 2016 election, he repeatedly criticized Trump, calling him an “embarrassing promoter of hate, division and insult” who alienated Hispanics and had no chance of winning the election.
Jay Strack
president and founder, Student Leadership University
Strack runs a Florida-based program offering Bible-based, evangelical conservative leadership training courses, declaring: “God has called us to prepare the next generation to think, dream, lead.” He spoke out in defence of White House weekly Bible study sessions attended by senior members of the Trump administration.
Paula White
senior pastor, New Destiny Christian Center
Dubbed Donald Trump’s “God whisperer” by Politico during the 2016 election, the Florida Pentecostal televangelist Paula White led a prayer session at the Republican national convention and asked God to “protect us from all those who aim to destroy us and make America safe again”.
Tom Winters
attorney, Winters and King Inc
Also a literary agent, the Oklahoma lawyer represents a host of bestselling religious authors, including the televangelist Joel Osteen, pastor at America’s largest single church, in Houston. Winters’ law firm’s main clients are churches, ministries and religious not-for-profit organizations.
Sealy Yates
attorney, Yates & Yates
Not to be confused with Sally Yates, the acting attorney general fired by Trump after 10 days in the post when she refused to cooperate with his travel ban, Sealy Yates is also a lawyer, based in California, representing Christian authors.
2 Comments. Leave new
A.R Bernard has since quit Trump’s advisory board, and according to the NYTimes, “Liberty University Alumni Return Diplomas in Protest of Trump Remarks.” Falwell has also had to deal with current students who oppose his support for Trump.
Mark Burns is a serial liar like Trump and Ralph Reed and Paula White also have questionable character issues. James Dobson should be ashamed of himself if he had any sense but in the end it’s “might make right.”
Lets suppose that President Trump had the ability and wanted to change himself into someone his critics would like, what would he be? Not personality changes, but what policies would he pursue?