After listening to Donald Trump give a speech laced with multiple documentable lies, a group of evangelical leaders joined in an “emergency prayer call” June 26 to ask God’s blessing on Trump in the next night’s presidential debate with Joe Biden.
Organized by televangelist Paula White-Cain and the National Faith Advisory Board she leads, the prayer call included prayers over Trump by White-Cain, pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, pastor Jentzen Franklin of Free Chapel Church in Gainesville, Ga., and others.
Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention told those on the call they all know the CNN moderators for the debate will not be fair but Trump will overcome their deceit.
“He is a warrior for us. He’s standing for us and always has and representing the principles and the precepts of God’s word that we so strongly believe. So it’s going to be a tough environment. We know it may not be fair in there, but God is going to give President Trump the words and the wisdom that he needs to respond and he’s going to confound those who oppose him.”
Graham prayed “in Jesus’ name” that God would give Trump victory in the debate and in the election.
Jack Graham
“Lord we are praying that you will do what only you can do and that is to overcome the works of darkness to defeat every strategy of the enemy, that you as you always do will overcome darkness, overcome evil with good,” he implored. “We pray that you would give President Trump words that come from you, and we know that this battle is not flesh and blood but that you have given us mighty weapons to the pulling down of strongholds and all the works of the enemies.”
While Trump was still on the call, White-Cain prayed over him by “the blood of Jesus” and quoted Scripture after Scripture to claim victory for the conservative Republican cause.
“So I declare right now, tomorrow when President Trump gets on the plane and he steps into that CNN studio in Atlanta, Georgia, you will fill him with your Spirit according to Acts chapter 4 verse 31 and he will speak with boldness, he will have the mind of Christ according to Philippians 2:5.”
She prayed that “no weapon formed against him” will prevail. She declared God “anointed” Trump “for this assignment supernaturally.”
Televangelist and personal pastor to Donald Trump, Paula White-Cain, speaks during a Trump campaign event July 23, 2020, in Alpharetta, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Franklin prayed God would give Trump “the mind of the learned” and “the tongue of the wise.”
“Let the spectators hear that man knows what he’s talking about; he can fix our economy; he can help our nation; he will defend our freedom; he will stand for what is right; he loves this nation.”
Franklin also prayed that God would “expose that wickedness” of Trump’s opponent, “the evil intent.”
The prayer call began with brief comments by Trump, who warned if Biden is reelected Christianity will be in danger in America.
“Under the Joe Biden administration … America is being destroyed,” Trump said.
“Pro-life grandmothers are being thrown in jail,” he said, and Christians are being targeted for government persecution.
“The Left is trying to shame Christians, silence you, demoralize you and keep you out of politics,” he asserted. “If Joe Biden gets back in, Christianity will not be a safe.”
As he often does on the campaign trail, Trump called Biden “the worst president in American history” and, in fact, a worse president than five or 10 bad presidents put together.
Trump also rehashed his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him. Had the election “not been rigged and stolen,” he would have finalized a nuclear deal with Iran and the world would be safer, he said.
He then lauded himself for his accomplishments as president, saying, “I defended your Christian heritage like no president ever in modern history.” Given four more years, he said, he will ensure that no one ever will be able to “dismantle” that Christian heritage.
“I defended your Christian heritage like no president ever in modern history.”
“In the first four years, we defended religious liberty like nobody has ever defended it before,” he asserted. Trump’s actual record shows he advanced a preference for the religious liberty of evangelical Christians but not people of other faiths.
“I stopped the IRS from using the Johnson Amendment, a very evil amendment to interfere with pastors’ freedom of speech, and Joe Biden has taken that away, but I will give it back in my first week in office maybe my first day.”
This is a common lie Trump tells. He attempted to dismantle the Johnson Amendment but failed. The Johnson Amendment, named for former President Lyndon Johnson, makes it illegal for certain tax-exempt charities — including churches — to endorse political candidates, the very thing those praying over Trump were doing.
Trump also said he will “stand proudly with our friend and ally, the state of Israel. There’s nobody that’s done anywhere near what I’ve done as a president for Israel,” he declared. “I kept my promise, recognized Israel’s eternal capital” and moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
It is doubtful by historical records that Trump did “more for Israel” than any other president. Harry Truman, for example, played a key role in forging the modern state of Israel after World War II.
Trump also wrongly declared that “every president as far back as you can even imagine” promised to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, but he’s the only one who followed through on the promise. The embassy was established in Tel Aviv intentionally to avoid religious entanglement. No Democratic president has promised or campaigned on the pledge to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama declared Jerusalem should be the undisputed capital of Israel, which is not the same as saying the U.S. embassy ought to be there.
“Virtually everyone, I think everyone, campaigned on it but they never did it,” Trump said. “I campaigned on it and I did it very early. I also recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. They weren’t even asking for that. They didn’t think they’d get that.”
Trump also declared he “will support Israel’s right to win its war on terror,” meaning its current war on Hamas in Gaza that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead.
Unflinching support for Israel is a key tenet of evangelical politics and theology, as it relates to the premillennial dispensational view of the end times.
Trump also wrongly placed blame on Biden for the U.S.’s chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, something set in motion by Trump himself. He called the U.S. withdrawal “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”
“We wouldn’t have had inflation and we wouldn’t have had — we had virtually no inflation and now you know we’re at levels that frankly I don’t think we’ve ever seen before in this country.”
Had he been allowed to stay in office, Trump said, “You also know and I think everybody even on the other side agrees Russia would never have gotten into Ukraine. Israel would have never been attacked on October 7. We wouldn’t have had inflation and we wouldn’t have had — we had virtually no inflation and now you know we’re at levels that frankly I don’t think we’ve ever seen before in this country.”
According to historical data, the 8% average rate of inflation in 2022 pales in comparison to several other times in U.S. history, including 1979, 1980 and 1981 (11.3%, 13.5% and 10.3%) and 1974 (11%).
If elected to a new term, Trump pledged he would “create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias” and “investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America, which is happening at levels that we haven’t seen in a long time.”
The view that Christians are being persecuted in America today is mainly held by white Christian evangelicals.
Trump ended his comments with a call to get out the vote.
“We have to fire crooked Joe Biden,” he urged.
He also called on churches to round up voters and collect mail-in ballots in lock boxes — “like the other side uses” in a “nasty way.”
“We have to get out and vote, and if we do we’re going to make America great again. I believe greater than ever before. It’s our final chance. If we don’t do it this time, I believe we’re going to lose our country.”
Before Trump’s comments, White-Cain called the former president “a dear friend” who has run “exceptional businesses” and who ran “one of the best campaigns” that led to “the absolute best presidency in our lifetime.”
She also lauded him as a “phenomenal father, husband, leader and friend.”
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