One evangelical preacher is supporting Trump’s border wall dream and using the Bible to support it, even claiming that heaven itself will have a wall around it.
Pastor of First Baptist Dallas Church in Texas, Robert Jeffress has been a huge supporter of Trump — and recently appeared on “Fox & Friends” Sunday to give his thoughts on Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as well as other Democrats.
“The Bible says even Heaven itself is gonna have a wall around it,” Jeffress stated on the show. “Not everybody is going to be allowed in. So if walls are immoral, then God is immoral.”
But not all American Christians adhere to the pastor’s bold stance.
President and general minister of the United Church of Christ, Rev. John C Dorhauer, shared with HuffPost how his denomination rejects the idea of building a wall between nations is either moral or biblical.
He referenced examples like the Berlin Wall as well as walls used in Europe to divide Jewish people into ghettos.
“A wall indicates a failure to love our neighbor as ourself, the foundation of a law Jesus asked his disciples to embrace,” Dorhauer shared.
But Jeffress defended Trump’s policies and believes there is nothing immoral about building a border wall.
“The Bible teaches that the primary responsibility of government is to maintain order and keep its citizens safe, and there’s nothing wrong with using a wall to do that,” he shared.
He then referenced two biblical passages to support his point – ones he has referenced multiple times in the past to support Trump’s plan for a wall.
Jeffress alleged that God instructed Nehemiah, a 5th-century B.C. Jewish leader, to construct a wall around Jerusalem to keep its people safe.
Jeffress also made the claim that heaven itself will also be surrounded by a wall — a reference to a passage from Revelation 21, where it says there will be a “great and high wall” surrounding a “New Jerusalem” at the end of the world.
On Tuesday, Trump discussed the morality of his border wall during a Oval Office address that was televised – arguing how politicians do not build walls around their homes because they hate the people on the outside, “but because they love the people on the inside.”
Jeffress tweeted out how Trump gave a “powerful speech,” shortly after the address.
But research shows how American Christians are across the board regarding their feelings about the border wall.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, stats show that white Christians support the wall, including 67 percent of white evangelicals, 52 percent of white mainline Protestants and 56 percent of Catholics. But Christians who are not white have differing opinions – 73 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 66 percent of Hispanic Protestants and 70 percent of black Protestants oppose the border wall.
Also, the morality of the border wall in the bible is not as black and white as Jeffress makes it out to be. Because while the Bible includes stories of constructing walls – it also contains stories about Joshua, a Jewish leader who tore down walls.
Leader of the Franciscan Action Network, Jason Miller, who spearheads the Catholic social justice group, shared with HuffPost how its possible to “cherry-pick” any reference from the Bible to defend one’s point of view.
But when it comes to Christians, the biblical command to love God and one’s neighbors should stand above all other teachings.
After all, it is the golden rule.
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