Evangelical advisers stand by Trump as others criticise him

NEW YORK: One of President Donald Trump’s most steadfast constituencies has been standing by him amid his defence of a white nationalist rally in Virginia, even as business leaders, artists and Republicans turn away.

Only one of Trump’s evangelical advisers has quit the role, while presidential boards in other fields saw multiple defections before being dismantled.

Rev A.R. Bernard, pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn and one of the most influential clergymen in New York, announced his decision on Friday night, saying “there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration”.

Trump’s evangelical council members have strongly condemned the bigotry behind the Charlottesville march by white nationalists and neoNazis over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But regarding Trump, they have offered either praise for his response or gentle critiques couched within complaints about how he has been treated by his critics and the media.

Like other presidents before him, Trump has turned to religious leaders for counsel and support.

Trump’s evangelical advisers include pastors who had worked with his campaign, and now pray with him and consult with his staff on issues ranging from religious liberty in the US to the persecution of Christian minority populations in the Middle East.

Jerry Falwell Jr, president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and an early backer of Trump, said the president had made a “bold truthful statement” about the demonstration.

Falwell said the president’s remarks were a clear repudiation of white supremacists, Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Johnnie Moore, a public relations executive, faith adviser to the president and a spokesman for several of the evangelical council members, said: “The president is certainly guilty of being insensitive”, but that the media and critics of the president have ignored his other comments rejecting white supremacy and antiSemitism.

Jack Graham, a Texas pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, signalled he planned to stay on as an adviser.

The role of faith advisers “is to prayerfully advise & advance Christian issues to the Administration,” Graham tweeted.

After the march last Saturday and Trump’s questionable response, some of his Republican allies started to more openly complain.

Trump dissolved two business councils this week after members began quitting, damaging his central campaign promise to be a businesssavvy chief executive in the Oval Office.

On Friday, the entire membership of the President’s Committee On the Arts and Humanities resigned.

As the backlash built, evangelical author Michael Brown urged Trump to fulfil his campaign promise to be a “unifier”. — AP