Trump Meets With Christian Pastors

On Tuesday June 21st Donald Trump spoke at a closed door meeting in New York City with 1000 Christian leaders. Sitting in the fourth row from the podium during this historic exchange was TRUNEWS host Rick Wiles, who was noticeably moved by the event, commenting following the meeting “frankly, I’m very impressed by him as a person, as a man.” Click the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeTULvaeNLQ

Firstly, I need to thank the hundreds of you who emailed me back committing to pray for the meeting with Donald Trump today. It was so encouraging to know I had so many committed, passionate pro-lifers praying for me at one time. I shared a few of your messages with the rest of the SBA List team and they were also really encouraged. Thank you so much. Your prayers and support are so valued at this critical time in our fight for LIFE.

I know that many of you were anxious to get a report back from the meeting, and I have a few minutes before I get on the train back to our office in Washington, D.C., so I have put together some thoughts on our time with the presumptive Republican nominee.

Mr. Trump was very generous with his time. Before the main meeting, a handful of Pro-Life, Conservative and Christian leaders met with him in a private setting.

Later in the day we gathered with nearly 1,000 leaders, activists and donors from across the country. He related well, coming across confident and comfortable in such a large crowd of thought leaders whose opinions and actions will be so critical as we approach November.

I was encouraged when Mr. Trump reiterated the most important pro-life commitment he has made to date: that he would appoint pro-life judges to SCOTUS. To quote him verbatim, "We are going to appoint great Supreme Court justices... These will be justices of great intellect... And they will be pro-life."

Mr. Trump also spoke about the threats to religious liberty and how the federal government continues to threaten the freedom of speech of people of faith and conscience to speak out in the public square. We both know how fundamental religious liberty is to our fight for life when we consider the anti-life mandates of the Obama administration that seek to force Pro-Lifers and Christians to violate their conscience by paying for life-ending drugs and abortions. And we're not blind. We know that a Clinton presidency would only further such draconian measures.

This is far from the end of the conversation. But it is important the conversation is taking place. Over the next few weeks and months, your SBA List team will continue to encourage Mr Trump to reiterate the important commitments he's made to date:

1. That he will appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court
2. That he will advocate for and sign into law the Pain-Cable Unborn Child Protection Act that would ban abortions after 5 months - a point by which the science is clear: Unborn babies can feel pain
3. That he will defund Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion business

And we will continue to educate voters in battleground states about Hillary's extremerecord on abortion and the unprecedented threat the unborn would face under another Clinton presidency. As you know, we're already on the ground in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. Just last week our incredible field team knocked on their 400,000th door.

Thank you once again for your notes of support, and for your many prayers. They are making a difference.

For Life,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List

Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association report back about the meeting in New York this week between GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and Christian leaders from across the country.

Franklin Graham prayed to open the event. Dr. Ben Carson spoke and told us about the Donald Trump he had come to appreciate. Gov. Mike Huckabee served as moderator and sat across from Mr. Trump. Trump entertained questions from the likes of Dr. David Jeremiah, Dr. James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Kelly Shackelford and Sammy Rodriguez. The questions were about religious freedom, Israel, potential Supreme Court nominees and abortion. I thought his strongest answers were about the type of judges he would appoint. I believe he fully understands the importance of this issue and said all his judges would be vetted by the Federalist Society -- a stalwart conservative organization. To me, this may be the most important issue of this campaign from the perspective of AFA and our supporters. After all, the next president will likely appoint two or more Supreme Court justices in the next four years. As we have seen over the last few years, it doesn't matter how many good laws are passed if the courts are going to strike them down.

Trump's weakness is that he did not clearly state his views in answer to the questions asked by Perkins and Shackelford about when religious freedom and the LGBT movement come into conflict, other than to say that these matters will be decided by the courts. He repeatedly said he was for religious freedom and his fallback position was that he would appoint judges who would defend religious freedom.

Mr. Trump also said he was tired of the political correctness surrounding matters of our Christian heritage and used Christmas an an example. He said companies want to profit from Christmas but then don't want to use the word "Christmas." He said he says "Merry Christmas" and thinks the PC crowd just wants to change the greeting to something more generic because it's another attempt to diminish the role of Christianity in America.

Trump answered Dr. Jeremiah's question about Israel saying he would be a strong supporter of the nation of Israel and never understood Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats who don't support Israel. Trump also understands the threat to our country by Islamic jihadism. He has taken a lot of heat from the liberal media for criticizing the problems within Islam.

On a personal note, I met several people who have known Donald Trump personally for several years and said he is not the brash, arrogant, sometimes rude person he appears to be on television. I will say without the media cameras in his face, he was pleasant, relaxed, funny and more thoughtful.

I think it was admirable and honorable for Trump to meet with Christian leaders. He is not our enemy. I believe he has instincts that are reverent and patriotic. He's 69 years old and remembers an America that was once a great country but has lost her way. But he also comes from a very secular world and that way of thinking is a part of who he is. In some ways, he strikes me as an enigma, a man still searching for spiritual answers in his life. But that's just my opinion. I will say this, he is listening to some great men of God that I have a lot of respect for, and that's a good thing.

To conclude, who but the Lord knows what lies ahead for Donald Trump? He wasn't my first choice for president but the majority of GOP voters chose him. Now either he or Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States of America.  So if one of them shows genuine interest in understanding Christians better and says he will be our friend, I believe we should tell him what we think and where we stand. To use a sports word, I think he's coachable.

I'm glad I came to New York. It was worth it. I would ask you to pray for Mr. Trump and our country.