With help from people of faith and “God’s grace,” former President Donald Trump said that defeating Democrat Joe Biden would usher in “the great revival of America.”
Speaking to the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Nashville late Thursday evening, President Trump said religious faith is “the biggest thing missing” from America today.
It’s being squelched by government agencies targeting people for religious and political beliefs, he said, declaring: “We have to bring back our religion; we have to bring back Christianity in this country.”
Calling himself “a fellow believer,” President Trump pledged to restore religious freedom if he wins reelection this fall.
NRB organizers said their nonpartisan, nonprofit group invited “all eligible candidates from both parties” to speak at the NRB Presidential Forum. But President Trump was the only one who accepted the invitation. President Biden didn’t respond, and GOP challenger Nikki Haley declined, a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.
More than 2,500 people were expected to gather for the NRB event at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
President Trump’s speech before the large and influential religious group comes as polls show record levels of support for him among evangelicals amid his third presidential run.
Last week, a Big Data Poll survey “measured the highest support for Donald Trump among white evangelicals and evangelicals of all races,” above a record that he previously set. Nearly 80 percent of evangelicals said they supported President Trump rather than President Biden.
The NRB includes pastors, podcasters, independent Christian journalists, and “missionaries who go to the world’s most dangerous places,” the former president said. Their messages reach tens of millions of Americans.
‘Destroying America’
He said President Biden and other leftists are destroying America by allowing illegal immigrants to overrun the country.Illegal immigrants are being treated better than longtime citizens and America’s veterans, President Trump said, as they’re being housed in high-end hotels.
At the same time, leftists have “unleashed mobs of foreign jihadists who praise Hamas,” the terrorist group that invaded Israel in October and committed atrocities.
“They’re praising Hamas, while they slander law-abiding Americans as domestic terrorists,” President Trump said.
He repeated his recent promises to create a task force that would rapidly review every case of “political prisoners” whom President Biden’s administration targeted.
In one example of disparate treatment, authorities dropped charges against violent, destructive Antifa agitators, but “rounded up six pro-life activists right here in Tennessee,” President Trump said.
The activists waged a peaceful protest outside of an abortion clinic, “where they prayed, sang hymns, and were removed with great force,” President Trump said. “Last month, those protesters were convicted on outrageous charges and are now facing up to 11 years in prison,” he said.
Because of such actions, “for all Americans–especially Christians–nothing is more important than to defeat this wicked system,“ he said, ”and to return to fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”
‘Chains Are Tightening’
But Christians “cannot afford to sit on the sidelines in this fight,” President Trump said. “The corrupt persecution by this regime will not stop with me,” he said during his speech, warning that many people could be easily targeted if they run afoul of the Biden administration. “The chains are already tightening around all of us.”“Ultimately, the radical left is coming after all of us because they know that our allegiance is not to them. Our allegiance is to our country. And our allegiance is to our Creator. They don’t want to hear that,” he said.
Thursday marked the first time President Trump had addressed the NRB, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary.
When the group was founded in 1944, America was confronting another crisis as World War II pitted the United States and its allies against Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.
“Our country was at war with an enemy that wanted to extinguish our way of life forever,” President Trump said. “But here at home, Christians knew that victory depended not only on the force of American arms but also on the faith in American hearts.”
Against that backdrop, NRB was established “to give voice to the preachers, ministers, and faith leaders who fought every day to strengthen America with the good news of the Gospel, and the love of Jesus Christ,” President Trump said.
Now, eight decades later, America is embroiled in a different “struggle for the survival of our nation.”
Upholding Religious Freedom
In contrast, President Trump said that, while he was in office, “we did more to uphold religious freedom than any administration in history, and everybody agrees.”He blocked the IRS from using “the Johnson Amendment” to impinge on pastors’ freedom of speech, supported students’ right to pray in school, and signed an executive order to “install faith leaders in every federal department and agency.”
“I was the first and only president to convene a meeting of the United Nations to end religious persecution worldwide,” President Trump said. “They were not thrilled, but that was okay.”
President Trump was also the nation’s first president to attend the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., a pro-life gathering.
Israel Depending on US
Toward the end of his 75-minute speech, President Trump discussed actions he took to shield Israel from religious-based attacks.At President Trump’s invitation, David Friedman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, took to the stage briefly.
“You were the greatest friend that Israel ever had in the Oval Office, by far,” Mr. Friedman said, touching off a wave of cheers and applause.
In contrast, his heart aches over “the tragedy that has befallen Israel.” He is convinced that the Israel attack never would have occurred if President Trump had still been in office.
He described how the current administration’s policies set the stage for the Hamas invasion of Israel.
President Trump had cut off sources of money that could be used to fund anti-Israel forces but President Biden reversed those policies, allowing more cash to flow to the terrorists, he said. “All of this was the lubricant that enabled Hamas to conduct their horrible attacks,” Mr. Friedman explained, adding, “and we’re feeling the pain right now because of that.”
When President Trump made good on his promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, “you got pushback from other countries, but you also got pushback from some of your own people.”
Mr. Friedman recounted being with President Trump in the Situation Room at the White House. “I remember what you said ... ‘I promised I’m going to do this, and this is the right thing,’” he said.
As a result, that sent a signal “to the world, not just to those people in that room, but for the whole world, that the United States will stand with its allies, and the United States will not flinch from the threats of rogue nations,” Mr. Friedman continued.
“That message resonated. It resonated in North Korea, it resonated in Iran, it resonated in Russia,” he said. “And when the history books are written, I believe that is one of the reasons why, under your administration, there were no new wars,” he added.
“We owe you a great, great, great, great gratitude that we cannot repay,” Mr. Friedman concluded as he prepared to exit the stage.
