Multimillionaire prosperity gospel preacher and Trump evangelical adviser Kenneth Copeland heaped praise on and vigorously defended President Donald Trump during the annual Southwest Believers’ Convention held at Copeland's church in Texas last week. At one point, Copeland blamed Trump's swearing on the fact that he is supposedly too busy to watch Christian television, but he excused Trump's cursing by insisting that as president, "he can talk any way he wants to talk."
While preaching last Friday, Copeland praised Trump for signing a largely meaningless executive order in 2017 that Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed "got rid of" the Johnson Amendment so that churches and pastors could become more directly involved in partisan politics and elections.
"Thank God for Jesus and Donald Trump," Copeland declared. "I can talk about this in church. I can talk about it on camera. I can talk about it anywhere, any time I want to."
"He did it by executive order," Copeland continued. "Now when we reelect him this time, then it can be ratified and it will no longer be illegal to preach politics in the pulpit, where it should be preached. I'm Donald Trump's partner, and he's my partner. I'm on his spiritual advisory council."
Copeland recalled an event organized by Trump's spiritual adviser and fellow prosperity gospel preacher Paula White at which Copeland and his wife were told by Trump that he watched them on television "all the time."
"Until he got elected president, gospel TV is all he ever watched," Copeland said. "He didn't watch anything else. I like that. You say, 'Well, he still uses foul language.' Yeah, but he's the president of the United States, he can talk any way he wants to talk. And the Lord showed me what happened: He got over into the place where he didn't have time to watch gospel television, and it slipped back in his mouth. But I'd rather have a man that just stands up there and just cuss on TV than to have one to go behind your back and cuss like a sailor."
