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American Family Association president Tim Wildmon and his virulently anti-LGBTQ organization issued a press release on Monday bragging that he has proudly joined Trump’s faith advisory council.
“Headline after headline analyze the important role evangelical Christians played in President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and continue to play in his presidency and his possible re-election in 2020,” the press statement reads. “Now, American Family Association (AFA, www.afa.net) President Tim Wildmon has been named to President Trump’s faith advisory council, made up of key leaders who support and help guide the president’s faith-based initiatives, give insight on policy important to evangelicals and, most importantly, pray for the president.”
However, White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told the Washington Blade on Wednesday Wildmon’s claims of his appointment are completely baseless.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Deere said. “There is no such thing as a White House Faith Council or Advisory Board. There is a Faith & Opportunity Initiative led by an advisor, Pastor Paula White, but it does not include a council or advisory board.”
News of Wildmon’s purported appointment was slammed by Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of the LGBTQ watchdog GLAAD.
“Tim’s addition to the White House’s Faith Advisory Council sends a solemn message to LGBTQ Americans and allies who are tired of the Trump administration’s attacks on LGBTQ and other marginalized communities,” Ellis said.
The Blade notes: “Trump’s advisors in the past have included many anti-LGBTQ activists, such as Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University; Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas; Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council; and Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition.”
In his statement Monday, Wildmon said Trump is “a flawed man,” but “still, he is not embarrassed to be seen with or stand with ‘the evangelicals,’ as he calls us. One of the reasons President Trump has taken unrelenting, incoming fire from the liberal elites — even before he was sworn in — is precisely because he is not ashamed of the Bible, the Constitution, the family, and the free enterprise system.”
“This is a critical time for America,” Wildmon added. “We need to pray for God to intervene. We need to ask the Lord to protect, strengthen, encourage and guide our nation and our president. I believe the only hope for him, and this nation, is God.”
Wildmon has previously called being gay “unnatural,” “immoral” and “unhealthy.”
In 2010, Wildmon’s AFA declared that “homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”
In 2004, AFA writer Stephen Bennett claimed: “Homosexuality is not only harmful to homosexuals themselves, but also to children and to society.”
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