Charisma, a Pentecostal-oriented media and publishing operation with a strong pro-Trump slant, published a post over the weekend calling for a fast to benefit President Donald Trump. The post claimed that a White House staffer “who has worked closely with President Trump and his family” has “expressed great concern for the increased attacks and threats against him” and “called for a corporate Esther fast from Nov. 2-5.”
“The fast is specifically to pray for the safety and protection of President Trump and his family,” the Charisma post states. “The timing of this fast is 365 days before the 2020 election.”
The post connects the call to pray for Trump to the biblical story of Esther, who asked her guardian to gather people for three days of fasting and prayer before she made an appeal to her husband, a Persian king, to stop a planned slaughter of Jews.
“Please join us for this important corporate three-day fast to see this assignment of destruction against President Trump's life and his family broken,” the post states. “Please begin to pray even now for those who mean to harm our president and his family, that they will be exposed and their plan stopped.”
The Charisma post was written by “intercessor, author, minister and literary agent” Karen Hardin, who said she had just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where her team “met with leaders in various positions of government and as well as some White House staff—people who meet with the president on a regular basis.”
Back in February, after another trip to Washington for the National Prayer Breakfast, Hardin wrote that “the atmosphere had literally changed” since her previous trip “because of the prayers of the church.” She also claimed that the way Trump read his speech was a sign of his “spiritual growth.”
This latest call for prayer and fasting on behalf of Trump is one of many made by religious right leaders during his administration. Religious Right leaders have publicly marveled at how many of their compatriots are serving in the positions in the White House and throughout the Trump administration.
