While many of Donald Trump’s former evangelical pastor supporters have distanced themselves from his run for the presidency in 2024, one failed candidate for the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma has launched a new Trump fan club.
Jackson Lahmeyer, pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa, has announced “a nationwide effort to connect Christian faith leaders with the America First movement helping to secure another term for President Donald J. Trump in 2024.”
Trump’s announcement of a second bid for the White House was met largely with silence from evangelical leaders who had been his chief cheerleaders in 2016 and 2020. Some not only were silent but indicated they were ready to move on to less controversial and morally compromised candidates.
Lahmeyer, however, is all in with Trump. His new group is called Pastors for Trump.
A news release said the group already has “a chapter in each state and the backing of dozens of Christian pastors with over 200,000 congregants.”
Lahmeyer said he wants “to advocate for issues central to the faithful including the importance of life, marriage, freedom of speech, and personal responsibility.”
“As the spiritual leaders of our nation, we are committed to pray for Donald J. Trump and present our requests before him.”
The new group’s website describes the effort as “a coalition of Patriot Pastors from all 50 states that recognize the importance of Christians engaging in the world we live in as the salt and light. As the spiritual leaders of our nation, we are committed to pray for Donald J. Trump and present our requests before him on issues such as life, marriage, freedom of speech and personal responsibility.”
It continues: “During President Trump’s first term, it was very clear that he was intentional to give pastors and Christian leaders a ‘seat at the table.’ There has been no president in our lifetime that has been as welcoming to Christian leaders as Donald Trump.”
While the news release and the website claim the team “is made up of prominent Christian leaders throughout America,” only two other people are listed: Craig Hagan, co-pastor of Rhema Bible Church in Oklahoma City, and Mark Burns, co-founder and CEO of The NOW Television Network based in South Carolina.
Lahmeyer is a charismatic pastor who is a graduate of Oral Robert University in Tulsa. He gained some notoriety as a COVID vaccine denier who offered to sign religious exemption forms for anyone desiring to avoid workplace or school vaccine mandates.
He ran in the most recent Republican primary in an attempt to unseat Sen. James Lankford, a conservative Republican and Southern Baptist pastor, whom Lahmeyer accused of “betraying” Trump on Jan. 6 when the Senate met — after being attacked by insurrectionists — to ratify the factual results of the 2020 presidential election. One of Lahmeyer’s stated priorities if elected to the Senate was to “investigate the 2020 election.”
The Pentecostal pastor’s political campaign was endorsed by Michael Flynn, the short-lived national security adviser to Trump who later was accused of making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential election and was pardoned by Trump, thus avoiding a public trial. Flynn has been the star of a traveling road show called the Reawaken America Tour. Flynn has said on that tour that America needs “one religion under God.”
Lahmeyer’s campaign also was endorsed by some of Trump’s most controversial allies, including Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani and Sebastian Gorka, whom Laymeyer calls “America First Patriots.”
Lahmeyer remains committed to Trump’s politics: “President Trump made it clear during his 2016 campaign for president of the United States that he was committed to bringing Christian leaders into the fold. During his historic first term, he proved that he would deliver on the promises he made. Heading into 2024, it is more important now than ever to reaffirm the strength of the Christian faith and our willingness to support President Trump in his fight to return to the Oval Office.”
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