Donald Trump secretly met last week with Sid Roth, Rick Joyner and other apostolic and evangelical church leaders. Mario Bramnick, senior pastor of New Wine Ministries Church in Cooper City, Florida, told Charisma about his private conversation with Trump—and what it reveals about the Republican frontrunner's true stances.
Bramnick attended the Trump Tower meeting as a representative for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC). NHCLC, the largest Hispanic Christian evangelical organization in America, is led by popular pastor Samuel Rodriguez Jr. Bramnick was joined in the meeting by Roth, Joyner, Frank Amedia, Alex Nuñez and Darrell Scott.
Though Trump has reportedly not changed his mind regarding immigration, Bramnick said Trump showed greater understanding for the plight of Latinos than he had in the past.
"I personally felt that I saw a different side of him from some of what has come forth in his statements previously," Bramnick said. "He seemed to understand the plight of the undocumented, the plight of the Latino here in America, and really showed a willingness to wanting to work with our community."
Rodriguez has been openly critical of Trump in past months, but this meeting suggests the two men may be able to find common ground. Bramnick said NHCLC and Trump actually agreed on many immigration-related issues: the importance of strong border security, comprehensive immigration reform and deportation for illegal immigrants with criminal records.
As president of the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition, Bramnick was also encouraged by Trump's addition of a pro-Israel advisor, Jason Greenblatt, to his campaign. Trump also reportedly demonstrated genuine concern for the state of religious liberty.
"He told us in the meeting that he's very, very concerned that Christians are losing their rights in America, that we no longer can even speak or express what we believe," Bramnick said. "And he did say that if he becomes president, he's going to change things to make sure that we as Christians have our religious liberties restored. He said he's concerned about Christians, he's concerned about Jews, and he wants to help."
Yet Bramnick said he was not endorsing any candidate at this time. Instead, he exhorted evangelicals to be prayerful and seek God's wisdom during this election cycle.
Bramnick said, "In our decision-making process—especially at such a critical crossroad in America—we need to see which candidate is most pro-life? Which candidate is most pro-religious freedom? And which candidate is most pro-marriage? And which candidate is most concerned about the immigrant and the stranger? We are in such a critical time. I don't think not voting is an option. We've got to be sober-minded. We can't be one issue-oriented.
"We need to cry out for our nation. We know the answer isn't coming from the Republican party or the Democratic party, but coming from the Lord. We all have expectations of great revival or great third awakening, but we're in very difficult times. We've been called to be light, we've been called to be salt, and we are the ones by the spirit first—not by power, not by might, but by God's spirit—to cry out to God, to decree and declare, to bring our nation back to its original godly values."
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