Trump Announces His New Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, List Includes Michele Bachmann

After Meeting With 400 Top Evangelical Christian Leaders, Trump Says He Has ‘Such Tremendous Respect and Admiration’ for His New Group

Donald Trump has just released the names of the people who will head his new Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, and among them are several dozen mostly well-known individuals, including Michele Bachmann, Ralph Reed, James Dobson, and Robert Jeffress. The GOP presumptive nominee been behind closed doors with about 400 of America’s top evangelical Christian leaders, including the heads of several anti-gay hate groups, and some of the most actively anti-LGBT faith leaders in the nation, since about 8:30 AM today in Manhattan.

The group has no public duties but is expected to be used to convince evangelicals to vote for Trump. A press release states they will “convene on a regular basis.”

Former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who grew her political career on the backs of first Minnesota’s and then the nation’s LGBT citizens, is one the list. So is James Dobson, who founded Focus On The Family and later, the Family Research Council. Also on the list is Jerry Falwell, Jr., son of the anti-gay televangelist who now heads his father’s Liberty University. Ronnie Floyd, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bishop Harry Jackson, who worked for several years with NOM, the National Organization For Marriage. Fire and brimstone megachurch anti-gay pastor and Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress, who has called the Mormon faith a cult and is publicly opposed to both Catholicism and Islam, almost as much as he is opposed to LGBT people. 

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Others on the list include ethically disgraced former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Richard Land. 

Ralph Reed, who made his name working for Jerry Falwell until he too ran into ethical troubles. He is now the head and founder  of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, where Trump two weeks ago promised he would protect traditional marriage three days before he promised the LGBT community he is the most pro-gay candidate running for president.

In a statement, Trump said, “I have such tremendous respect and admiration for this group and I look forward to continuing to talk about the issues important to Evangelicals, and all Americans, and the common sense solutions I will implement when I am President,” as Politico reported.

Some have called into question the ethics of stumping for Trump, given their prior statements:

The full list (below) includes only three women, as NPR’s Matt Katz reported.

· Michele Bachmann - Former Congresswoman 

· A.R. Bernard - Senior Pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural Center

· Mark Burns - Pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship Center

· Tim Clinton – President, American Association of Christian Counselors

· Kenneth and Gloria Copeland - Founders, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

· James Dobson - Author, Psychologist and Host, My Family Talk

· Jerry Falwell, Jr. - President, Liberty University

· Ronnie Floyd - Senior Pastor, Cross Church

· Jentezen Franklin - Senior Pastor, Free Chapel

· Jack Graham - Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church

· Harry Jackson - Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church

· Robert Jeffress - Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas

· David Jeremiah - Senior Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church

· Richard Land – President, Southern Evangelical Seminary

· James MacDonald – Founder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel

· Johnnie Moore - Author, President of The KAIROS Company

· Robert Morris - Senior Pastor, Gateway Church

· Tom Mullins – Senior Pastor, Christ Fellowship­

· Ralph Reed – Founder, Faith and Freedom Coalition

· James Robison – Founder, Life OUTREACH International

· Tony Suarez - Executive Vice President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

· Jay Strack - President, Student Leadership University

· Paula White - Senior Pastor, New Destiny Christian Center

· Tom Winters - Attorney, Winters and King, Inc.

· Sealy Yates – Attorney, Yates and Yates

 

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