On Friday night, President Trump used his considerable Twitter platform to promote a new book by Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch pastor and big Trump campaign booster, whom Trump called a “wonderful man.”
Great book just out, "A Place Called Heaven," by Dr. Robert Jeffress - A wonderful man!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017
We started following Jeffress back in 2007 when he was trying to prevent Mitt Romney from becoming the Republican presidential nominee because Romney is a Mormon. Jeffress argued then, and again when Romney ran in 2012, that Mormonism is a non-Christian cult and since Christians should always prefer a Christian candidate they shouldn’t support Romney.
Jeffress’ thoughts on this subject seemed to change in 2015 when he got on the Trump train. Jeffress was one of the first Religious Right leaders to get behind Trump’s candidacy and eventually joined his evangelical advisory board. On Inauguration Day, Jeffress led a private prayer service for Trump and his family, where he found biblical parallels for Trump’s war against the mainstream media and obsession over building a southern border wall. Since Trump has taken office, Jeffress has been there to defend Trump against charges of racism, downplay questions about the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia, give the president advice on judicial nominees, and grant him God’s permission to launch a war against North Korea.
Trump clearly sees a useful ally in Jeffress, whatever his record of extremism. We took advantage of the occasion to delve into our archives on Jeffress. The pastor who Trump calls a “wonderful man” has said:
- Catholicism is a “counterfeit religion” that comes from Satan.
- God would judge the nation for electing Mitt Romney because “Mormonism is a cult” and “God always judges a nation that has a ruler who introduces false gods into that national life.”
- An Air Force Academy accommodation for pagans “is an open invitation for God to send His harshest judgments against our nation.”
- “Islam is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell; Mormonism is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell; Judaism, you can’t be saved being a Jew.”
- “Have you noticed how the television airwaves are being flooded right now by programs that celebrate homosexuality? Homosexuality is being crammed down our throats and being presented as a normal, alternative lifestyle.”
- Homosexuality is “a miserable lifestyle.”
- Gay people are prone to child abuse because “homosexuality is perverse, it represents a degradation of a person’s mind and if a person will sink that low and there are no restraints from God’s law, then there is no telling to whatever sins he will commit as well.”
- “Why is there such a high incidence of disease among homosexuals? Because ladies and gentlemen, what they are doing is more than holding hands and kissing, OK? They are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine. Because what they are doing is unnatural, it goes against nature, because of that filthy practice; there is a natural result to it. There is natural, physical consequences to homosexual behavior. That’s why God says don’t engage in it, you are going to harm your bodies in doing so.”
- President Obama was “paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.”
- Gay marriage is “the greatest sign of the End Times that we see in our country right now.”
- “[N]o nation can survive that condones what God has condemned. And God has condemned homosexuality, just like he does adultery or per-marital sex, as being wrong and, as a nation, we cannot be blessed by God if we’re rejecting God.”
- Christian terrorism is “almost nonexistent in the world today” because “only eight” people have died in abortion clinic bombings.
- 9/11 was God’s punishment for legal abortion.
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” is a sign of the End Times.
