Donald Trump and Ben Carson met with as many as 900 Christian conservative leaders on Tuesday June 20 in a closed-to-the-media “conversation.” It will be “the largest, most representative gathering of national, Christian leaders I’ve seen in my lifetime,” said Johnny Moore, spokesperson for My Faith Votes (one of the meetings organizers) before the meeting. The invitees include James Dobson, Ralph Reed, Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, American Values President Gary Bauer and many megachurch pastors. The media blackout will be accompanied by tight security sealing off the Marriott Marquis in New York.
The daylong program, titled “A Conversation About America’s Future with Donald Trump and Ben Carson,” appears to some like the first glimpse of a possible 2016 GOP presidential ticket.
“Many evangelicals did not support [Trump],” said Tony Perkins. “There are many out there that I think would like to, but there is some uncertainty… Look, as evangelicals, Christians, conservatives in this process, we not only want to have influence but we also have to be a witness to the truth. And, so part of that is, ‘Alright, let’s have a conversation about these issues. Maybe you didn’t think through them.’ And I give him the benefit of the doubt that as a businessman who’s been doing other things, he’s not thought through these policies, and that’s why you’ll see him from time to time change his positions once it’s been explained to him.”
The leaders behind organizing the meeting solicited some 50,000 questions from grass-roots activists in preparation for the event. “This meeting would be even more representative of Christians in America than the 900 people in attendance,” explained Moore. It is neither an “inquisition” nor a “coronation,” but a “conversation,” said Moore. “The Trump campaign has been unbelievably cooperative to commit such time with these leaders.”
“This is an incredibly diverse group, and it is mainly made of pastors and other church leaders,” he added. “It is not a meeting of political activists. A lion share of the most influential Christians in America will be in attendance.”
Carson will convene the meeting and deliver an address to those in attendance.
When Christian leaders get more power and influence, when they stand united on key issues that concern them, where does it lead? It leads to demands for a Sunday law and a loss of religious liberty for God’s people. One could hardly imagine a Seventh-day Adventist giving the key note address in a meeting like this.
“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.” Great Controversy, page 445