Jerry Falwell Jr. Praises Donald Trump; Here’s How Other Evangelicals Compare
At America’s largest Christian college today, Donald Trump promised to protect Christians while Jerry Falwell Jr. praised the presidential candidate as a visionary whose “life has borne fruit” a la Matthew 7:16.
“In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the Great Commandment,” said the president of Liberty University during the school’s thrice-weekly convocation.
.. Another sign of The Donald’s popularity: He drew five times more admiration than Billy Graham on Gallup’s latest list of the Most Admired Men in America.
.. “I would say that Ted Cruz is leading in the ‘Jerry Falwell’ wing, Marco Rubio is leading the ‘Billy Graham’ wing, and Trump is leading the ‘Jimmy Swaggart’ wing,” Moore recently told Roll Call.
.. The Capitol Hill newspaper went on to explain:
Cruz has largely followed the classic Moral Majority model that was the face of the conservative movement—he has received endorsements from figures such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson—while Trump ‘tends to work most closely with the prosperity wing of Pentecostalism’ which tends to believe that God would financially reward believers. As far as Rubio’s outreach to the ‘Billy Graham’ wing, this week the presidential hopeful announced a religious liberty advisory board that includes Rick Warren, the founding pastor at the influential Saddleback Church.
.. Indeed, about 40 Pentecostal pastors laid hands on Trump and prayed for him in October.
“Part of it is the fire,” explained Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor who attended the meeting, to The Christian Science Monitor. “Pentecostal preachers are probably the most fiery preachers, and we appreciate directness, we appreciate bluntness, we’re more in-your-face.”
.. However, poll numbers from Reuters show a close but fairly steady unfavorable view of Trump by those who attend religious services weekly. The latest numbers show that about 52 percent of those who attend worship services weekly disapprove of Trump, compared to 48 percent who view him favorably.