Jack Graham, an SBC pastor from Plano, Texas, joined evangelical pastors to ask God to protect former President Donald Trump after two assassination attempts.
This past Monday, Jack Graham, the ultraconservative senior pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, who's been repeatedly telling his 50,000-member congregation this year that they're engaged in a spiritual war against liberals, teamed up with a group of evangelicals in praying over Donald Trump to win the presidential election next week.
"We love you, Jesus, and we also love our country, and we thank you that you have raised up a man, Donald J. Trump, to be a warrior for the word of God and the wisdom that comes from God," Graham said into a handheld mic while the pastor, Trump and surrounding clergy closed their eyes during the final minutes of the National Faith Advisory Board summit in Georgia. "We pray, as you raise him up once again to be our president, that you would give him strength and wisdom and joy in the journey."
Graham, 74, has long been a powerful advocate for religiously conservative politicians in Texas. He preaches to a predominantly white, right-wing congregation that includes state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Graham also has ties to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and the pastor is one of the several Texans to serve as a spiritual adviser to the Trump White House during his term.
In the last year, Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has used his sermons to advocate for Trump while simultaneously calling the Democratic Harris-Walz campaign ticket "the death of America." Graham's actions have seemingly flown in the face of the Johnson Amendement, a federal restriction barring churches from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit at the risk of losing tax-exempt status.
Both Democrats and Republicans statewide have accused one another of using churches and clergy to campaign for their preferred candidates. However, the IRS has rarely enforced this tax code restriction, according to an investigation by the Texas Tribune and Propublica.
Last month, Pastor Robert Jeffress, the evangelical leader of First Baptist Dallas church and its 16,000 member-congregation, denounced the Johhnson Amendment, first drafted in 1965 by then-Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. "I don't think the government ought to have any say about anything that's said or not said from the pulpit," Jeffress told me in an interview, adding that the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court will one day "see it as a violation of First Amendment rights."
Jeffress also criticized liberal-leaning Christians statewide who have toed legal lines when inviting political candidates into their houses of worship. Several Black pastors in Texas, including Douglas West of Houston's Church Without Walls, have introduced Democrat Rep. Colin Allred to their congregations during his campaign to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
This week, Trump, who identifies as a former Presbyterian turned non-denominational Christian, promised to repeal the Johnson Amendment if elected to his second term as president, PBS reported. "We have to save religion in this country," Trump said. "No, honestly, religion is under threat." Trump also said that conservative Christians would enjoy a direct line to the White House should he win the country's seat of power in November.
Many speakers at the National Faith Advisory Board summit, including Dallas-based evangelical influencer Lance Wallnau, are prominent figures in a far-right evangelical movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which favors Christian rule over the country. Wallnau, a self-described prophet, has defended the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attacks, called Harris' campaign performance "witchcraft" and organized an event for Ohio Senator J.D. Vance last month. "In every state and every county…Christ will be glorified!" Wallnau said this week, per reporting by Kiera Butler of Mother Jones, who attended the summit.
Also there, Paula White-Cain, a Florida televangelist who hosted the event, prayed that God would protect Trump's well-being. "Secure his life, his calling his purpose, that no weapon formed against him will be able to prosper and a thousand will fall at his side and 10,000 at his right hand but it will not come nigh him," she said to applause from evangelicals, many whom say they believe God saved Trump from the two assassination attempts this year. "We believe you're a vessel. You're a chosen vessel," Jentezen Franklin, a megachurch pastor in Georgia, added in closing while comparing Trump with the Apostle Paul in the Bible. "We're praying for God's blessing on your life."
The prayer session ended with some of the pastors dancing on stage to the Village People's "Y.M.C.A," the unofficial gay anthem which has become one of Trump's favorite campaign songs
https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/texas-pastor-prays-donald-trump-19871542.php
