According to a CNN report today, Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress “is scheduled to preach at a private service for President-elect Trump and his family on Friday, shortly before Trump takes the oath of office.”
Trump campaigned alongside Jeffress and appointed the Texas-based televangelist to his Evangelical Executive Advisory Board. Jeffress, in turn, hailed Trump as a “strongman” who rightfully rejects Jesus Christ’s teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.
As we wrote last year, Jeffress has a long record of hostility towards Muslims and Jews, who he has said are going to Hell; Mormons, whom he blasted as cult members; Roman Catholics, whom he linked to Devil-worship; and gay people, who he said “are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine.”
Jeffress made waves in the last presidential election when, after endorsing Rick Perry, he told Christians that they shouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because of his Mormon faith, which wasn’t too surprising since he once blasted Mormonism as “a cult” from “the pit of hell.”
Jeffress has similarly stated that Satan created Roman Catholicism, declared that Jews, Mormons, Muslims and gay people are all destined for hell and maintained that President Obama “is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.”
No fan of the gay community, Jeffress believes that gays and lesbians are “perverse” people who are either pedophiles or likely to abuse children in the future; compared homosexuality to bestiality and called it “a miserable lifestyle”; accused gay people of using “brainwashing techniques” to have homosexuality “crammed down our throats”; said that gay people “are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine”; predicted that the gay rights movement “will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist”; and labeled homosexuality a “filthy practice” that will lead to the “implosion of our country.”
In a statement to CNN, Trump’s inauguration committee stated that “Pastor Jeffress is figure representing a diverse spectrum of Americans” and criticized “any attempt to vilify this religious leader” as “deeply disappointing and misplaced.”
