5 Christian Leaders' Reactions to Trump's UN Speech: 'Trump Was Churchill'
September 20,2017
President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in New York City and didn't hold back from using bold language to address issues such as North Korea, terrorism and Iran.
Trump's speech was wide-ranging and addressed many different topics such as radical terror, the nuclear threat of North Korea, Iran's funding of terrorist groups, Iraq, Syria, Cuba, socialism, and United Nations reform.
Not only did the president threaten to "totally destroy" North Korea if the United States is forced to defend itself or allies from the Kim regime's nuclear threat, he also called out Iran for using oil profits to fund terrorism instead of serving its own people and lambasted the fact that the U.S. accounts for a substantial chunk of the U.N. budget when it is only one of 193 nations in the international body.
Although many critics have been quick to voice their disapproval with Trump's bold language and threats in the speech, some evangelical and Christian leaders praised the speech and some even compared Trump to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Here are five evangelical leaders' reactions to Trump's U.N. speech.
The 61-year-old Robert Jeffress, pastor at the megachurch First Baptist Dallas and one of Trump's closest spiritual advisers, didn't waste time in getting out a statement to press following Trump's U.N. speech.
In a statement shared with The Christian Post, Jeffress called Trump's speech "the most courageous speech ever delivered by any President to address that global body."
"For far too long the United States has poured countless millions of dollars into a United Nations that fights against American interests, pacifies global tyrants, promotes anti-Semitism and mismanages humanitarian crises," Jeffress asserted. "President Trump's inaugural visit to the U.N. General Assembly represents a day of reckoning for a near hopeless bureaucracy, and his inaugural speech was the most courageous speech ever delivered by any President to address that global body. Thank God for a President who will call evil 'evil.' Today, Trump was Churchill."
Trump's speech was also praised by leading evangelist and son of Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, who is the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse humanitarian organization.
Graham posted his reaction to Trump's speech on Facebook, stating that it could be one of the "best speeches" he has ever heard delivered at the U.N.
"Thank God we have a president who stands for truth and is not afraid to speak truth to the whole world," Graham wrote. "President Donald J. Trump's address today to the United Nations General Assembly may have been one of the best speeches ever given to that body. It made you proud to be an American. I hope you will join me in praying for this man, that God will guide and direct him. He reminded the world, 'If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph.'"
Johnnie Moore, an evangelical religious freedom advocate, author and a former vice president at Liberty University, also praised the president's speech.
Moore, who also serves as an informal adviser to the Trump administration, took to Twitter to voice his thoughts.
"Flying but just read @realdonaldtrump's UN speech. WOW. Reads like Churchill on NK," Moore tweeted. "Rightly took it to Iran also. Sensibly Humanitarian."
Moore also retweeted a tweet from former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that states that "Trump gave a strong and needed challenge to UN members to live up to its charter and to confront global challenges."
Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor-turned politician and television personality, took to twitter to voice his opinion of Trump's speech.
The former Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, who will start a new show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7 in which Trump is scheduled to be his inaugural guest, called the president's speech "refreshing."
"@POTUS delivers refreshing and honest speech to UN! Good to see him stand strong!" Huckabee tweeted.
Erick Erickson, who runs the conservative blog The Resurgent and is one of the founders of RedState, is known for being one of the most vocal conservative NeverTrumpers out there. But even Erickson seemingly approves of Trump's U.N. speech.
In a tweet, Erickson stated that the president's U.N. speech "may be my favorite Trump speech so far as President."
"First POTUS in a long time to not do the BS dance at UN," Erickson wrote.
Erickson elaborated on his thoughts in an op-ed posted by Fox News.
"He was bold and American — giving real clarity to what he meant by an 'America First' speech," Erickson wrote. "He did not mince words and called out rogue nations. But he also noted that he had no intention of imposing the American system on other nations. His speech was a speech on what he sees as realism and getting away from an idealized American foreign policy. His was a speech that will resonate beyond his base."