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About two dozen evangelical leaders spontaneously prayed with President Trump in the Oval Office Monday during a day-long "listening session" with the Office of Public Liaison.
Johnnie Moore, a former senior vice-president at Liberty University, posted pictures of the prayer time Tuesday night on social media but emphasized that it was more than just a photo op.
"It shows a substantive relationship between the evangelical community and this administration," he told CBN News.
Moore said faith leaders are enjoying frequent access to officials throughout the Trump administration and explained: "We enjoy an open door, not just in the Eisenhower Building, but in the West Wing."
The West Wing includes the Oval Office where the president works, as well as the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room and the Roosevelt Room. The Eisenhower Executive Office building is located right next to the West Wing and houses other White House staff.
Jennifer Korn, special assistant to the President, organized the meeting, but the prayer time was an unexpected bonus, Moore said. "When the West Wing became aware that we were on the property, they invited us over to spend a few minutes," he said.
He described the president as "in wonderful spirits" as did Tony Suarez, executive vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
"It was so relaxed," Suarez told CBN News. "Just like friends getting together."
Other leaders in the room included Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council (FRC); Pastor John Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio; Paula White, senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida; former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann; Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas; Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, California; Rodney Howard-Browne, senior pastor at the River at Tampa Bay Church, Mike Evans, the founder of Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, and Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte and others.
"While there is no formal office," he said, "we actually think we're enjoying a much more substantive relationship."
After the meeting, Perkins told FRC supporters that he's found the Trump administration to be "genuinely interested and responsive to the concerns of the evangelical community" and added that after 14 years in Washington, D.C. "I am more optimistic that we can change the course of this country."
Leaders at Monday's day-long session described discussing a wide variety of issues with administration policy makers. Moore said they included religious liberty and criminal justice reform. Perkins mentioned foreign policy and Israel.
Suarez said the group prayed for a number of policy matters including Trump court nominations that have yet to be confirmed. Suarez said he's most concerned about a lack of action on immigration reform but added "I don't blame the White House. I blame Congress."
Faith Leaders' Visit to Oval Office Is Blowing Up the Internet
President Donald Trump prayed with a group of evangelical faith leaders Monday afternoon at the White House. (Facebook photo)
The lead story, as of this writing, on the Drudge Report website is a photograph taken by Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne of a prayer circle for President Donald Trump held earlier this month in the Oval Office.
The photos from the event are now blowing up the internet.
The prayer meeting was held Monday following a gathering of the president's evangelical advisory group at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. Pastor Jim Garlow wrote about the experience—and his own special moment—in a post on Facebook that evening:
Okay. This hit me funny. A group of us were in meeting at the EOB—next to the White House. Unexpectedly Jared Kushner showed up. Then Vice President Mike Pence showed up. And he said President Trump wanted us to come to the Oval Office. We did. We were gathered around President Trump, seated at his desk for an official photograph. VP Pence saw me take out my phone, saw the look on my face that I so wanted a pic with my phone. The VP reached out his hand (not a word was said) took my phone, took the picture, handed the phone back to me!! I could not believe it. I just had a picture taken of me/us with the President—taken by the vice president of the United States!!! Am I the only person in the world to experience that ??
Garlow didn't post his photograph because he said he wanted to get permission from the White House before doing so. Tuesday evening, however, Howard-Browne posted his own photograph to his Facebook page, along with the following description:
Yesterday was very surreal for @ahowardbrowne & I. 30 years ago we came from South Africa to America as missionaries. Yesterday I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th President—what a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office—laying hands and praying for our President—Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection—who could ever even imagine—wow—we are going to see another great spiritual awakening #ovaloffice #westwing #whitehouse #washingtondc
He also posted several other photos from the Oval Office visit. Click here to see them all.
Highlight after all these years of fighting for America—standing in the Oval Office with President Donald J.Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and Pastor Paula White and other Faith Leaders—listening to our great President talk about America—Great Job Mr President—Great Job #ovaloffice #westwing #whitehouse #washingtondc
PS thank you to Pastor Paula White for making a dream come true
Late Tuesday night, Garlow posted his own photo, along with the following description:
As I shared, a group of us (Faith Leaders) met with President Donald Trump yesterday. He was warm & so responsive. A total delight. And ... what is amazing, as I reported yesterday, this picture was taken on my cell phone by Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States! (He saw my desire for a picture on my cell phone, stepped up to me, took my cell phone, without saying a word, took four pictures & handed the phone back to me!). Am I the only person in history to have a photo with the President- taken by the Vice President?!? An amazing moment.
White-Cain hasn't posted anything about the prayer meeting on either her personal or ministry social media platforms. But another of the president's evangelical surrogates during the 2016 presidential campaign did. Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas posted what he described as the "ultimate selfie," along with the following comment:
Always an honor to visit with our great President Donald J. Trump! Forget #FakeNewsMedia. Donald J. Trump is energized and determined to #MAGA!
Howard-Browne's photo drew the attention of the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, which wrote an article about the prayer meeting. That, in turn, his what caught internet news aggregator Matt Drudge's attention.
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NEW YORK -- When Disney recently promoted an "exclusively gay moment" in its live action remake of "Beauty and the Beast" it pointed to a troubling trend for many believers: an anti-faith bias that seems to be growing.
It can be seen on many college campuses, like Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, which force Christian student clubs to welcome non-Christians in leadership.
It can also be seen in the media's support for LGBT activists and disdain for those who speak of religious liberty.
Bias in the 'Big Three'
Faithwire.com Senior Editor Billy Hallowell says what's most concerning is that this anti-faith bias is now well entrenched in our most important cultural institutions, or the "big three" as he calls them.
"When you're not presenting both sides of something, when you're not giving people options—whether it's in the university, whether it's in the media, whether it's in Hollywood—you're essentially robbing people of the ability to make a choice," he told CBN News.
Millennials are perhaps most affected by this dynamic as they've grown up with a glut of media and entertainment, served up instantly on cell phones and tablets.
"People are much more disconnected I think from what is happening, desensitized to it and really the end effect of that—the big change—is that opinions are shifting," said Hallowell.
Changing Views on Sexual Morality Among Millennials
A millennial himself, Hallowell looks closer at these dramatic changes in his new book, Fault Line. One wake-up call is recent polls showing that growing numbers of Americans approve of premarital sex or having a baby outside of marriage Hallowell says. Other polls show support for polyamory (romantic relationships of three or more) has doubled and that almost two-thirds of the country now thinks that homosexuality is morally acceptable.
At the same time, going to church is no longer a way of life for almost a quarter of all Americans with millennials leading the way.
"Generational replacement is happening," said Hallowell. "There is a larger percentage of people at this point as millennials who are disassociated with faith than previous generations were at this point."
Hallowell points the finger squarely at the "big three."
"I don't think we've taken enough time to look at all of these areas together because to me that was the eye-opening thing," he said. "It's easy to complain about an individual area and to take a show and pick it apart but when you really start to look at data and info and logically break it down, it really does become troubling."
That data includes numbers like this: a 2014 UCLA study in which almost six in 10 professors described themselves as "liberal" or "far left" compared to a little over one in ten who say they're "conservative." That's a roughly 50 percent difference which translates into what Hallowell calls "liberal privilege."
"People who are liberal or maybe not [religiously] affiliated enjoy the privilege to speak freely whereas people who don't associate with those beliefs maybe have a harder time speaking up," said Hallowell.
Consequences of Publicly Sharing Traditional Values
One clear example happened in 2009 when the media blasted Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for her answer to pageant judge Perez Hilton's question about whether she thought every state should legalize gay marriage.
"I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman," Prejean responded. "No offense to anybody out there but that's how I was raised."
In the following days, critics attacked Prejean for her response including judge Hilton who uploaded a reaction video calling her a derogatory expletive and declaring "if that girl would have won I would have gone up on stage, smashed that tiara off her head and run out the door."
Hallowell believes that outcry fits with a normalization of rampant sexual activity. It has infiltrated television, making the so-called "family hour" obsolete.
As a dad, Hallowell felt he had few choices for his young children. His instinct proved correct when a 2016 Barna Group report found that less than one percent of Americans believe that Hollywood is faithful to Christian beliefs. More than half said that Hollywood sometimes or generally portrays Christian beliefs negatively.
Even more concerning says Hallowell is the subtle anti-faith bias that people often miss. "I think the covert bias is much more problematic," he said.
To top it all off, the mainstream media is often the guide to these events and trends and few journalists are religiously affiliated. A 2007 Pew Research Center poll found that just eight percent of journalists at national media outlets attend church or synagogue weekly. That lack of involvement contributes to a worldview bias says Hallowell and a bias in story selection and tone. He cites election night coverage that resembled a funeral and that confounded mainstream journalists who found themselves out-of-touch with many people of faith who voted.
Hallowell hopes that Fault Linewill serve as an alarm to fellow millennials who have become desensitized to this anti-faith and often anti-conservative bias. "We don't even recognize that some of this is problematic anymore," he said. "We look at it as normal."
One way to fight the new normal, he says, is from the inside. Hallowell urges believers to go after careers in Hollywood, the media and academia to turn the tide in subtle and perhaps not-so-subtle ways.
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A 24-year-old blogger mom is feeling the burn for her post about canceling a Disney vacation over the Beauty and the Beast controversy.
Brooke Poston has been waiting with her daughter for months for the release of the new live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. They've also been looking forward to their second family vacation at the Disney World theme park in Florida.
Now, neither event is happening for the Poston family and they have a stream of hate mail in response to Poston's post explaining their decision.
"I'm not paying for simple entertainment that doesn't accurately align with my personal beliefs," she wrote. The deal-breaker in this case: Disney's "exclusively gay moment" in the movie.
Poston, who lives in Louisiana with her husband and two young children, says she and her family have been Disney fans for years, despite knowing that Disney supports LGBT characters to some extent. She cites the lesbian couple on the Disney show Good Luck Charlie in 2014 and the unofficial "Gay Days" at the theme park. But Poston says the gay scene in this movie crossed a line for her.
"There comes a point where you have to take a stand for the things you believe in," she wrote, adding, "this is my stand."
"Disney isn't just aiming their efforts towards parents of Disney-aged children anymore. They are pointing a desperate finger at the innocence of our youth," she said.
Poston found out about the gay scene in Beauty and the Beast the same day she booked their family vacation--and so was able to quickly reverse course and change plans without financial repercussions.
Poston is also processing hundreds of Facebook comments, messages and emails slamming her for her family's decision. Readers have told her she is "disgusting" to take away her daughter's dreams and told her that she is teaching her children to hate.
She posted about that experience as well saying, "It wasn't my plan to stir strife. So if the context of my words [was] misleading and I made you feel condemned or less of a person, I'm truly sorry."
She also explained "I don't shun LGBT people. I don't fear them. I believe that all humans should be treated equally and with respect. But I have a right to stay true to my religious beliefs as well."
Poston says that if Disney reconsiders its stance, she will reschedule her Disney trip. In the meantime, she and her family are planning to head to Branson, Missouri, for their family vacation this year.
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A divided Senate voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as the nation’s new secretary of education, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a 50-50 tie.
The news comes after senators in opposition to DeVos staged an all-night speaking marathon against her, hoping to draw out at least one more opposition vote after two Republican senators announced that they would oppose DeVos.
Critics have also risen up on social media, with #holdthefloor and #NoOnDeVos hashtags abounding. A chief concern -- that DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist and product of private education, has no experience with or interest in supporting public education. It's a charge her supporters fiercely deny.
In the midst of this political battle, many believers have noticed that DeVos is a committed Christian who prioritizes her faith.
Rev. Robert Sirico, the founder of the Grand Rapids-based Acton Institute and a long-time DeVos family friend, describes her as a "solid evangelical Christian" who is active in her church and "orthodox in her beliefs and personal commitment to Jesus Christ."
John Booy, another long-time friend, told CBN News that DeVos integrates her faith into all areas of her life and that it's led her to a "deep sensitivtiy to those who have not had the privilege she's grown up with."
DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos spoke at a 2001 Christian philanthropic gathering about their faith. She described a desire to be active in education to influence the culture and help "advance God's kingdom."
Dick DeVos spoke about wanting to drive better performance across all education. "Our Christian worldview, which for us comes from a Calvinist tradition, which is to be very much a part of the world and to provide for a greater opportunity, a more expanded opportunity someday for all parents to be able to educate their children in a school that reflects their worldview," he said.
Booy is principal at the Potter's House, a Christian K-12 school in Grand Rapids. DeVos has actively supported the school for years and Booy says she became passionate about reforming education while meeting parents there. The school opened in 1981 to provide a choice for families in the low-income neighborhood surrounding it. At the time, their public school ranked third-lowest in the state.
"I think that until you actually meet people who will tear up and cry when they tell you how desperate they were for their child to go to a safe school where they would be loved and cared for and be nurtured and would be taught to their highest potential--when she began to ehar those kinds of stories from the mouths of mothers and grandmothers, that's pretty compelling," said Booy.
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After years of hiding in the shadows, this year's March for Life is stepping into the spotlight, thanks to support from the President and a campaign aimed at stepping up media coverage.
Tens of thousands of women are expected to participate in Friday's march in Washington, D.C. The annual event celebrates life and protests abortion and the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized it.
In a show of support from the administration, Vice President Mike Pence will address the thousands of pro-life at the march this Friday. Pence's address is historic, as this is the first time a Vice President will ever speak at the March for Life event.
“Honored to meet with pro-life leaders tonight,” Pence tweeted Thursday. “I look forward to addressing National [March for Life] on Friday.”
Pence will be one of two Trump administration officials to address the crowd in the nation’s capital. Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway will speak at the March for Life and President Trump even promoted the event in a Wednesday interview with ABC's David Muir.
The president turned the tables on the anchor, who asked the President if he could hear the voices from last Saturday's Women's March on Washington at the White House. That march attracted hundreds of thousands of women but repulsed many pro-life women when it removed a pro-life group from its partner list and actively promoted its pro-abortion agenda.
The president told Muir that he didn't hear the women at the Saturday march but pointed Muir to the March for Life (which opposes abortion) saying "you're gonna have a large crowd on Friday too, which is mostly pro-life people." Trump added "and they say the press doesn't cover them."
Muir looked unsure and responded that he didn't want to compare crowd sizes. "What they do say," Trump repeated, "is that the press doesn't cover them."
A new study shows that the president is right and that the mainstream media normally gives scant coverage to the March for Life, especially when contrasted with the coverage that it gave to the Women's March Jan. 21st.
Katie Yoder of NewsBusters reports that the ABC, NBC and CBS broadcast networks covered the Women's March 129 times more than they did the 2016 March for Life.
Yoder says the three networks spent a total of one hour, 15 minutes and 18 seconds on coverage of the Women's March. However, they only gave 35 seconds to covering the 2016 March for Life. In 2015, only CBS mentioned the March for Life, giving it just 15 seconds.
The Alliance for Fair Coverage of Life Issues, a group of conservative and pro-life organizations, is calling on the media to cover pro-life issues. In a statement released this week the alliance noted "this year, ABC, CBS and NBC have no excuse to silence these pro-life voices. The networks heavily promoted the Women's March on Washington, helping boost its attendance."
The alliance may get its wish this year, given the high-level support from the Trump administration and growing public awareness of media bias.
*CBN neither supports nor opposes any candidate for public office.
For years, science and the Bible have seemed at odds over the source of the Earth's water. In Genesis 1, the Bible explains that God created Earth as a water-covered sphere and in Genesis 7 the author explains that "springs of the great deep burst forth" and flooded the Earth.
However, scientists have debated for years over where the planet's abundance of water originated. Some have believed that the Earth's water must have come from external sources like asteroids.
A new study published in the journal "Nature" appears to support the Bible's account. Christian News reports that the research suggests that water actually originated deep inside the Earth. A summary of the study notes "it is not clear just how much water resides within the solid Earth and where it is to be found."
CBN News' Heather Sells spoke with Regent University's Dr. Robert S. Stewart, a microbiologist and chair of the Science, Technology and Mathematics Department about the findings and what they mean for understanding the truth of the Bible's creation account.
HAVANA -- As Cuba transitions to a new relationship with the United States, Americans have a renewed interest in learning how the church there has fared for the last 50 plus years.
The short answer is: amazingly well. In fact, many believe the hardships and suffering have paved the way for an explosion of church planting.
Comfort not a Concern
On a typical Sunday morning in Cuba, you can find churches across the island overflowing with worshippers. Many meet in homes and others meet in churches that look more North American but operate in a political climate that is very different.
Space is the biggest challenge for many churches. Under current government rules they typically cannot buy land or expand. One church CBN News visited responded to the rules by building several stories up. Others cram into homes and multiply when they become too big.
Pastor "Miguel" leads a church that used to meet in an apartment but now meets in the yard next to his apartment building.
"When you have 80 to 100 people [meeting] in an apartment it's hard, very hard," he told CBN News. "And neighbors get upset."
It's a common theme in Cuban churches, but it seems to have also helped to encourage church growth. In the past 20 years, more than 16,000 evangelical churches have opened their doors.
Pastor "Nestor" and his wife "Rosa" live in one room above their tiny house church. He told CBN News, "One of the things that has made us grow in faith has been the limitations and the difficulties."
On Sunday mornings and during weeknight services, only a few will have a real seat.
"People here don't care how comfortable they are," Rosa explained. "They could be exhausted from working all day and they will sit on a bag of rocks, a stitched up chair, or stand the whole service, and they're okay with that."
Home Church Explosion
Cuban church leaders say events led by the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s sparked the current church planting explosion.
"When the Russian government collapsed Cuba went through a lot, and people started looking to churches for hope," Pastor "Julio" told CBN News.
At the same time, the government ended its atheistic philosophy that denied the existence of God and instead declared itself a secular state, prompting an entire generation to question what it believed.
During that period a government official told Cuban Baptists that the government could not authorize the construction of new buildings but suggested that the believers meet in homes.
The casual suggestion sparked a house church movement that many have compared to church history recorded in the book of Acts.
Pastor "Francisco" is one of thousands of Cuban house church pastors who follow the Gospel with tremendous passion. He came to the Lord after having dreams about Jesus for three years. Now he leads a small neighborhood church that meets three times a week.
"We have evangelized everyone who lives in this area, a New Testament Bible to each home," he told CBN News. "We can't stop -- we won't stop -- because even if they won't accept the Lord the first, second, third or fourth time, even so -- we can't stop until they come to the Lord."
Victory through Challenge
The growth of the church in Cuba is even more miraculous given the country's poverty. The average monthly government salary is $20 and professionals typically make less than $50.
Still, Cuban churches are known for their generosity and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.
"What we have we want to share with others," Francisco said. "What we have, not what we have left over."
Another obstacle facing Cuban churches is spiritual warfare in the form of Santeria. It's a system of beliefs influenced by West African religions and Catholicism. Santeria is known for its rituals and ceremonies.
Pastor Nestor has faced resistance right in the neighborhood. During one Sunday morning worship service, a group of Santeria followers stood just outside the church and began beating their drums.
"It was kind of like a spiritual face-off," Nestor recalled. "The church just started praying and then we prayed for rain and all of a sudden there was thunder so they had to leave."
Church leaders in Cuba say they're enjoying a new season of relaxed restrictions. It's easier to evangelize outside the church and they receive more permits to hold special events.
Still, most churches cannot expand or buy land. They cannot produce Christian radio or television shows.
They must also work around a dysfunctional economy. At Pastor Nestor's church, remodeling plans for the sanctuary are on hold indefinitely until the church can obtain much-needed cement.
"Sometime without suffering there's no challenge," Pastor Nestor told CBN News. "And without that challenge, there's no victory."
