“President Trump’s evangelical advisers are planning a meeting between him and as many as 1,000 evangelical pastors later this spring, according to one of the leading advisers, Johnnie Moore, and several other people involved. The meeting will fall at a time when some prominent evangelical leaders are nervous that a dramatically lower number of conservative Christian voters will turn out for this fall’s midterm elections, as a president embraced by evangelical voters is enmeshed in a high-profile sex scandal.
“The group organizing the pastors’ meeting with Trump consists primarily of white evangelicals, who have had regular access to the White House during Trump’s term unlike other U.S. faith groups.”
The details of the invitation-only gathering aren’t confirmed yet, but the location is said to be at the Trump International Hotel in June.
“Most of the pastors who would be invited are supporters of Trump’s positions on abortion, Israel and churches’ ability to endorse political candidates. But some of these evangelical leaders say that recent implications of sexual immorality have cast a shadow among ‘values voters’ over the administration’s policy achievements.”
Moore, and Paula White, Florida Megachurch pastor and close advisor to Mr. Trump both say that the gathering will be more of a celebration of Mr. Trump’s achievements during his (by that time) first year and a half in office.
The meeting appears to be an effort to keep the bond close between Trump his evangelical support as well as to make a public splash as a similar meeting did in 2016.
Some Christian conservatives behind the scenes are concerned that evangelical voters, discouraged by sex scandal stories, and other issues such as the Russia investigation, will lose enthusiasm for voting in the 2018 midterm elections.
Bob Vander Plaats, the president of the Family Leader in Iowa, who has been asked to serve on a committee for the meeting, said Trump has done more for evangelicals than any other administration in recent history. But… we’re in this environment of unease, definitely among evangelicals. But it’s broader than that,” he said, saying he thinks it could affect the midterm elections.
White evangelicals have been among Trump’s most loyal voters, with 78 percent of them approving of his job performance, about double what Americans as a whole say of the president’s job performance.
Trump’s evangelical supporters are not surprised by any licentiousness in his past, Moore said. “There wasn’t any kind of illusion of piety,” he said. “[The evangelical vote] was a conversation about policy priorities that they thought were moral and were righteous.”
“The fact that Trump has a past was already baked into the equation when people voted in November,” said Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas.
Chad Connelly, who led faith engagement for the Republican Party for five years, said that many evangelicals believe the media failed to investigate President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions as vigorously as they have pursued Trump’s past. “They see hypocrisy, and it makes them want to defend the guy,” he said.