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July 14, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The mean-spirited and confused reaction to a tweet showing a photo of pastors and Vice President Pence praying for President Donald Trump in the Oval Office says more about the Left’s open contempt for Christians in the public square than it does about the much-distorted “separation of church and state.”
On July 11, KAIROS Company president and evangelical public relations professional Johnnie Moore tweeted a photo of about 10 men and at least one woman praying for Trump, with the message: “Such an honor to pray within the Oval Office for @POTUS [President of the United States] and @VP.”
Some of those praying laid their hands upon Trump or directed their hands toward him as is the custom of Christians praying over the person whom they are asking God to bless. Vice President Pence attended the gathering and can be seen praying for the president.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee said the prayer occurred at a Monday meeting between Trump and his faith advisers. Huckabee corrected a reporter who relayed a press account that presumed that the prayer was intended to help Trump in a “crisis.”
“The idea that somebody would only pray when they're in crisis, I think, makes you miss the entire point of what prayer is about. You should do that every day. I think you can do that in the best of times and the worst of times. So I think it would be ridiculous to suggest the only time you might do that is in a time of crisis,” Huckabee said at a White House press briefing reported on video by CNN.
CNN reported:
“Moore, reached on Wednesday, said the meeting happened after a number of national faith leaders were invited to meet the President as they met with representatives from the Office of Public Liaison.
“Evangelicals, like Moore, believe deeply about praying for the President. And the faith leader said that the group — after a 'lighthearted visit among friends' — ended the meeting in prayer.
“We similarly prayed for President Obama, but it's different with President Trump,” Moore said. “When we are praying for President Trump, we are praying within the context of a real relationship, of true friendship.”
Left-leaning opponents of Trump were outraged by the White House prayer photo.
In response to Moore’s viral tweet, Michael Diebert tweeted, “Separation of church and state,” and linked to Moore’s photo. Diebert’s tweet had received a 1,618 retweets and 4,807 “likes” at press time. (Moore’s original tweet received about double the retweets and “likes.”)
But Jake King responded to Diebert on Twitter: “Dude, dems flipped when trump skipped Ramadan but praying is somehow more of a religious activity. One nation. Under god.”
“The anti-religion crowd has now cleared the bar from not wanting prayer in schools all the way down to, “’we don’t want public officials praying or being prayed for at all,’” observed Andrea Ruth at RedState.
Many of the Twitter responses were nasty or obscene.
“What kind of voodoo mojo are you [chucklf—ks] doing in the White House,” tweeted John @scavenger101.
“Sorry, but prayers aren’t going to help these [m——f—-rs],” tweeted Andrea Kuszewski.
“Willful misuse of prayer,” tweeted Paul Murray.
“I would sure like to know how the exorcism went,” Derek Smart snarkily tweeted, above a photo of Moses with an obscene slogan above it.
According to Vanity Fair, another image of the Trump meeting with Christian leaders was shared by evangelical pastor Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, a missionary who wrote about being asked to pray for the president:
“Yesterday was very surreal for @ahowardbrowne & I. 30 years ago we came from South Africa to America as missionaries. Yesterday I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th President—what a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office—Laying hands and praying for our President—Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection—who could ever even imagine—wow—we are going to see another great spiritual awakening.”
Prayer and America’s founding
Liberal advocates of an austere “separation of church and state” might read their American history about the many times America’s leaders called upon God for help and engaged in the fervent defense of American Christianity. Prayer was pivotal in the founding of the United States, and presidents from Washington to Obama have called upon the Almighty for help.
The “National Day of Prayer” was “created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S Truman,” according to the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private Christian group that encourages prayer and biblical righteousness.
David Lane of the American Renewal Project testifies to the strong Christian roots of the American nation:
“In their own time of crisis, America's Christian forefathers of the 18th century gave the same prescription: “Expanding hostilities with Great Britain in the 1770's interrupted the importation of English-language Bibles from the mother country. This prompted three Presbyterian clergymen in July 1777 to warn of an impending shortage of Bibles and to petition the Continental Congress to underwrite a domestic printing of the Scriptures.”
All that is seemingly irrelevant ancient history to many modern secular leftists who cynically see the public exercise of Christianity — especially by Republicans — merely in political terms. The Trump-bashing LGBTQ “news” site LGBTQNation ran a vicious piece about the White House meeting with faith leaders by homosexual Bill Browning, who wrote:
“With even his base starting to question his denials that his campaign worked with the Russians to undermine the integrity of our elections thanks to all the recent revelations about the multiple direct ties to the Russian government, Trump knew he had to do something quickly to distract them and make them remember just how “godly” he is (despite evidence to the contrary again).
“So what’s an faux-pious president to do? He invited some of the most vociferously anti-LGBT faith leaders, holier-than-thou Vice President Mike Pence, and certified loony former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, to the Oval Office for a ‘laying on of hands’ prayer session.”
