Paula White, who used her position in the Trump White House to maintain close ties between former President Donald Trump and religious-right leaders, presided over a pre-debate prayer call with Trump on Monday night, where he claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris wants to turn Christians into “second-class citizens.”
The call was sponsored by White’s National Faith Advisory Board and her allies at Intercessors for America. Call organizers said that tens of thousands of faith leaders participated.
White gushed over Trump, introducing him as “a great man of God.” Trump gave a condensed version of his stump speech, claiming that “we’re in a nation that’s failing right now” and saying this year’s election would be the most important day in American history. He urged conservative Christians to vote in record numbers, saying that this election is the country’s “last chance.”
In a likely preview of attacks he will make during tonight’s debate, Trump trashed Harris, who he called “Comrade Kamala.” He claimed that she had presided over a “wave of anti-Christian bigotry and persecution unlike anything our nation has ever seen.” Trump claimed that if Harris becomes president, she will “ramp up the left’s war on Christianity, and it is indeed a war,” adding that “Christians will be reduced to second-class citizens and that’s what they want.” He said when he wins, he will create a task force to fight anti-Christian bias and will “bring our country back together as one nation under God.”
Trump falsely claimed that Harris supports an “extreme” position on abortion, including “executing the baby after birth.” He warned that she wants to have “millions of criminal illegal aliens” become citizens and vote, which he said would “destroy the voting power of Christian conservatives forever.”
Trump also bragged that he had “transformed the federal judiciary with nearly 300 new judges, including three great Supreme Court justices.” (It is true that Trump judges have been transformational, but not in a good way.)
White prayed that Trump would be anointed with divine wisdom on the debate stage. White, who has frequently denounced Trump’s political opponents as demonic, asked God to bind any “demonic trap” or “demonic assignment” against Trump.
Joining White in praying for Trump were Intercessors for America’s Dave Kubal, MAGA pastor Jentezen Franklin, Hispanic evangelical leader and New Apostolic Reformation figure Samuel Rodriguez, and Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who has hosted Trump at his church.
Franklin compared Trump to the biblical King David, who lamented in the book of Psalms that he was targeted with lies and words of hatred. Franklin urged pastors on the call to preach about the election and have their churches register voters, saying, “If America is going to be destroyed, it will be destroyed by the silence of the pulpit.”
Rodriguez prayed that the debate moderators would facilitate a conversation “undergirded by civility where truth will shine and the darkness of discord, relativism, and deception will be exposed.” He prayed that God would “via the conduit of your Holy Spirit, as you anoint and bless President Donald Trump, please remind every viewer…that God is not done with America and America is not done with God.”
Sewell prayed that God would quench “every fiery dart that would come against” Trump. He prayed that God would give Trump prophetic insights during the debate, and the ability to use his tongue like a two-edged sword “to cut when it needs to cut and heal when it needs to heal," and that it would be known to debate viewers that God had “anointed” Trump “to break the shackles that have bound our country.”
White closed by urging people to take six-hour prayer shifts over the next 24 hours and to fast on Tuesday. She thanked Trump for the honor of praying over him and said, “I believe that an army is rising up and standing with you, with this nation, and with God.”
The National Faith Advisory Board’s Jenny Korn closed the call by reminding pastors that the group’s My Faith Matters tour has been in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona, and will be going to Wisconsin on Sept. 17.
Intercessors for America released its own prayer points for the debate, though it is not clear how helpful they will be to Trump, since they are largely focused on asking God to favor the truthful and confound liars.
