Court Evangelicals in Attendance at the August 27, 2018 State Dinner

20 thoughts on “Court Evangelicals in Attendance at the August 27, 2018 State Dinner”

1. FYI – That picture is not of them in a private jet. It’s a shuttle bus.

   1. Although most readers have likely not spent a lot of time flying in private jets, I think most people can work out that those are seats in a really nice shuttle, not a jet. Nor would I expect anyone in that picture to IG pics of themselves in a private jet. Bragging is fun, but not on stuff that can trigger backlash. They do have donors (who are paying for this) to think about, after all.

      The shoulder straps alone give away that this is ground transportation, plus the seating arrangement is not consistent with the luxury private jets used by the DFW televangelist set. But make no mistake, The Daystar Lambs fly via private jet and they do extend those privileges to various Gateway top leaders. Robert Morris has already declared to other pastors and staff that flying commercial will “kill him” so even when Daystar’s jet isn’t available Gateway does charter one for him and his entourage to use, at tithers’ expense.

2. Ok… naïve question from north of the 49th …. are these people, the (self-proclaimed?) royalty of evangelicals and their massive congregations/followings really representative of the average evangelical Christian?

   Do the majority of evangelical Christians who attend and the pastors who serve the thousands of small local churches with maybe 50 or a 100 members/attenders and are simply looking to live and minister in their local community actually buy into this insanity?

   1. Nah. One news agency said they “only” represent about 150M Christians. It’s terrifying to think that other Christians and other countries will think this has anything to do with Christianity. Just remember Daniel and Terry, that most of the men at that dinner have worn makeup at some point for their careers.

      The reality is that Trump only had a few basic criteria for selecting his courtiers.

      1) Lack of integrity. They had to have low standards or no standards (those with standards have turned him down) plus they must be easily flattered. Watching Trump slathering insincere compliments on these pastors, using a topic he knows virtually nothing about, is like watching someone dishing out doggie treats to their pooch “Who’s a good televangelist! Who’s a good televangelist! Look at all that pretty widdy, fluffy wuffy hair! Go fetch Daddy’s slippers! Good Boy! Now go tell your flock how to vote and give them links to my campaign giving page! Good televangelist! There’s a treat! There’s a treat! Pictures with Daddy in the Red Room! Russian wine with dinner! But no tummy rub until after midterms. Now go fetch!”

      2) Big microphones. Of the 15 original pastors on Trump’s Spiritual Advisory Board, 13 were televangelists. He went for the people with large TV and Internet audiences. TV and Internet are the mediums than Trump understands and has more or less mastered (compared to other politicians). Unfortunately, the sleaziest of the sleaziest of all pastors are drawn to that industry. They are the spin-off of the Aimee Semple MacPherson, “The Show Must Go On” Spiritainment crowd. They would not know a sacred moment if they tripped upon one – quite by accident – it would have to be.

      3) Easily manipulated. These pastors, with the notable exception of the SBC eager participation (4 former SBC Presidents attended: Ronnie Floyd, Jack Graham, Robert Jeffress and JD Greear) do not have strong theological backgrounds. Many, like Robison and Morris, only have high school diplomas and no college degrees or seminary training. It’s possible they don’t even realize how egregious and damning their behavior is. You may notice that you really can’t find many serious theologians among Trump’s lot. It’s hard to tell how much they buy into their own scripture twisting, since they never were taught hermeneutics. That’s not an excuse, of course, but it may help explain some of this.

      4) Scandal ridden ministry or sketchy background. Paula White is thrice married and was seen canoodling with Benny Hinn in Italy while still married to hubby #2 (ewwww). Greg Laurie is the Lonnie Frisbee disciple who prides himself on being the bad boy of Christendom. He fancies himself a modern day Steve McQueen. He lies all the time. I’m not even sure he knows that. Listen to his tall Harvest Revival tales.

      Morris was a drug dealer and abuser. Not a schoolboy pot dealer, but by his own words,a hardcore weed, meth and cocaine dealer plus at least one reference to using heroin. He was “extremely sexually immoral” and committed adultery and had to take a three year sabbatical from ministry over that. He admits to gambling to take money from other Christians, breaking into occupied houses to steal, and brags that he is the most talented, pathological liar on the planet. Tell me that’s not up Trump’s alley. Plus the horrible things Morris says to extort money from decent people? Don’t get me started.

      Franklin Graham’s family is shrouded in immoral behavior, divorces, drug abuse, and scandals.Franklin turned his daddy’s charities into “churches” after he got caught paying himself over $1M a year – money that was intended to help starving orphans. God knows how much he pays himself now that it will never have to be reported again.

      Jack Graham’s church has covered up sex scandals, as has Gateway (7 Gateway leaders at this Trump event). They heavily rely on a large team of lawyers to extract expensive NDAs to cover it all up. Sensing some parallels yet? The SBC has taken a beating on their sex scandal coverups lately, hence, 4 SBC Presidents in attendance. Even nice guy Jim Garlow came under scrutiny as he took up with a very gorgeous woman very soon after his wife’s tragic death. He undertook a very expensive total home remodeling project at his posh San Diego home including all new furnishings and was spending pretty freely and drawing a bit of suspicion and criticism from his own flock. Note: he did later marry that woman and they seem very happily married now, but he still is no stranger to criticism over lifestyle choices, making him more likely to overlook others criticized for their lifestyles.

      David Crank’s wife has been married multiple times and they run their church, literally, like a circus, including having trapezes and elephants on the center stage. They are notorious for their lack of discretion and over the top, unChristlike, hedonistic lifestyles. They opened up a church campus in West Palm Beach, FL just so they could use church funds to pay for their new posh beach get away.

      Marcus Lamb carried on a SEVEN year affair with his Director of Marketing. Since he ministered to her during this time period and is a pastor (submitted to Gateway) this was also a second degree felony. Robert Morris did not make Marcus step down as a pastor, not even for a week, exposing both parties as biblical frauds. The Lambs throw really excessively extravagant 6 figure weddings for their three children, but film them and their engagement parties as “Daystar Productions” so that they can be paid for out of tax-free donations, since donations pay for all “Daystar Productions”. They do the same with their “family vacations”. Those donations are supposed to be used to spread the gospel, not pay for private jets, chauffeurs, beach side private compounds and full time hair and makeup artists.

      James Robison, likewise, stumps for donations based on gruesome depictions of dying babies and child prostitutes, but uses the money for extravagant living and funding his Right Wing media empire, The Stream. He charges donors $4,800 per water well, when similar wells in the area are constructed for less than $500. Where does the other $4,300 go to in his well digging business? The head of the well digging company drives a $120,000 BMW. Robison’s sex slave “relief” business? Owned by Jimmy James, the partner of his other family business, InProv, where the kids and grandkids work and live quite extravagantly off of direct marketing for TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar & the worst charlatans. The bulk of all these donors for these televangelists are primarily the elderly living on fixed incomes.

      Robert pays for his lake homes and extremely expensive boats (yachts and professional 6 figure ski boats) using tax free ministry funds and calling them “ministry expenses”. Right now these same con artists are running ads, night and day, pressuring the elderly into allowing THEM to help them with their “estate planning” so that they can leave a “lasting legacy” meaning write the con artists into their wills as a way of storing up treasure in heaven. Morris teaches that we all need money in heaven as we will be property owners and have businesses and engage in trade. Giving your earthly money to these televangelists now is one of the best ways to drive up the balance in your heavenly account that you will need to last for all of eternity dontcha know.

      Most of the televangelists in Trump’s camp engage in similar forms of financial misconduct. In short, they speak Trump’s language.

      As for who buys into the insanity? Who knows? Few will ever reach the “success” levels of those in that room, many of whom gross between $50M – $150M a year at their orgs. But how many other current pastors are out there who WANT what they have? Gateway has no trouble selling out their annual conference, even though it’s basically just a rerun of what they have been saying for the last decade.

      They and the other gigas holding these pastors conferences are selling “the dream”. You too, can run a $140M unregulated, unaccountable tax free family business and we can show you how. 4,000 pastors show up every single October and thousands more watch on-line. So there is a whole lot of demand from con artists who see the church as one of the easiest paths to get rich quick. And they don’t have to work that hard. Just tell jokes and funny personal anecdotes, then play loud, killer music and serve awesome coffee.

      There are also a lot of narcissists who see it as a never ending stream of their life source:their narcissistic supply. Everyone wants to flatter and revere their pastor. There are also a huge load of sexual predators who realize churches are the richest and safest killing fields on earth. The most trusting people and the least likelihood of being held accountable. So in the end a ton of people want to get into ministry for the worst reasons possible.

      Pastor for pastor, who is winning? It’s hard to say, but likely the smaller humble ones. As more sex scandals blow up and events like this Trump ring kissing are exposed, it will make it more difficult for the Robert Morrises and Greg Lauries to continue to scam the public so they can live extravagantly. This may end up being a good thing. More people will see the light behind these unethical salesmen and hopefully make an effort to find a sincere Bible based church where fellowship matters for the right reasons. Sometimes it needs to get really bad before it can get better.

      1. That was quite a summary — thanks for taking the time to do it. I don’t watch the televangelists as often as I once did out of lurid fascination, but of those I know about, I wholeheartedly agree — they are a veritable rogues gallery of deplorables.

         Naturally, they don’t care what Trump does. Many of them must have thought all their birthdays had come at once when Trump won and they were invited join him at the very heart of the American political establishment. It could have been Vladimir Putin for all they are concerned — in fact, I’m sure some of them would prefer it was. Such closeness to power and prestige is no doubt intoxicating, and in their eyes, there is only one unforgivable sin Trump is capable of now — being removed from office in disgrace.

         1. I believe all of the Evangelicals fawning over Trump will want to pretend that none of this happened when or if he is removed from office in disgrace. That is WHY people like Robert Morris and James Robison and their wives are working to conceal their participation in these events. It is essential that people make a record of all of the Evangelicals who feasted at the tables of Trump for when this day may come. They gleefully monetized the crucifixion of their savior for a moment of personal glory.

            It is essential that church members come to terms with the fact that THEIR pastor is validating and supporting a man like Trump, which means that through their tithes and offerings, they too are supporting Trump and giving him a semblance of religious morality. This cheapens Christianity for all believers. This is a shame that should follow them to their graves.

      2. That was quite a summary — thanks for taking the time to do it. I don’t watch the televangelists as often as I once did out of lurid fascination, but of those I know about, I wholeheartedly agree — they are a veritable rogues gallery of deplorables.

         Naturally, they don’t care what Trump does. Many of them must have thought all their birthdays had come at once when Trump won and they were invited join him at the very heart of the American political establishment. It could have been Vladimir Putin for all they are concerned — in fact, I’m sure some of them would prefer it was. Such closeness to power and prestige is no doubt intoxicating, and in their eyes, there is only one unforgivable sin Trump is capable of now — being removed from office in disgrace.

         1. I couldn’t agree more. I believe their current acts of concealment are about hedging their bets, in case that very thing does happen.

            If you think about these leaders, like at Gateway, which takes in $140M each year, unaccounted for and tax free, considering the total lack of oversight they have, these leaders really are the Oligarchs of the Televangelist industry. Who do you think Abramov, Prokhorov or Abramovich answer to? With Trump muzzling the Feds plus locally, TX AG Paxton and TX Gov Abbott doing similar for them, these guys are free to do whatever they please regardless of how unethical, immoral or illegal it is.

            I guess, just like in Russia, we’ll have to wait for a regime change before we see anything resembling justice. Let’s just hope these guys keep their shirts on when horseback riding. I don’t want to think of Kenneth Copeland pulling a Vladimir.

3. Gateway Church of Southlake, TX Apostle and Founding Elder James Robison was also one of the pastors Robert Jeffress gushed about, who stood up and bestowed buckets of praise upon President Trump. Funny how he doesn’t mention any of that on his news site or social media accounts. I find it interesting that NONE of the impromptu praise pastors are speaking up and sharing what they had to say. If it was important enough to address the President of the United States and the leader of the free world directly, why not share it with all the Christians you lead? That’s the list I want to see. Greg Laurie and Paula White both took the podium formally to lavish Trump with praise, but what about the others on the floor?

   Despite what current SBC President JD Greear had to say about wanting to provide biblical counsel to Trump and speak truth to power, there was none of that going on that night. .Every single person in attendance was there to preen and ponce around, congratulating themselves on their accomplishments and feasting at the expense of tithers and tax payers. This was not some sort of counseling session. Trump was even given a thank you gift from the crowd. A Bible that the pastors wrote in and signed. Like he’s ever going to open it. Unless he needs to look up some more of those “Two Corinthians walk into a bar…” jokes.

   These people enthusiatically went to this party so they could use it as an excuse to buy fancy clothes, stay at 5 star hotels and puff themselves up with self-importance. However, they only want to do it to the extent they can conceal it from their flocks. Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow has more than pulled his weight helping out on that one.

   How am I so sure of this? Robert Morris and James Robison did the exact same thing just 8 months ago. They flew down to Washington DC just to laud the President over Trump receiving the Friends of Zion Award, for his “courageous support of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.” Robert Morris has said that God personally contacted him to give him his own parable because God chose Robert to personally bring the Jews to Jesus. How many people can say that? So Israel and the Jews should be of great doctrinal import to Morris. You would think that he would want to share the triumphant moment he and Robison shared with Trump. But no.

   Tom Lane also told staff that although they want to keep Robert’s meetings with Trump on the DL around the flock, in general, they really think that Gateway’s support of Trump will help them to curry favor with some significant donors. Way to bring it back around to most important thing at Gateway Tom. Hint, it’s not honesty, integrity or shepherding their flock.

   Yet despite standing right behind Trump with Robison, both beaming ear to ear, as Trump celebrated receiving his award, and posing for the official Friends of Zion Museum picture, neither pastor mentioned a word back home in Texas. It was as though it never happened.

   Just like with his daughter Elaine, Robert Morris is leading “an immoral double life”. The difference is that Elaine was a teenager who grew up and later repented. Robert is in his 50’s and he cannot wait to sneak out of the house and go see his illicit bff Trump again, on the sly. Maybe next time the ladies can talk about how to upgrade those child cages with some $500 a yard, custom Turkish Damask draperies?
   https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d29d5c32b088a85e57313d3b5db56337684b96dd71606e3e5936ec188443243b.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89fef087e566a0c12670d8eb26f6d2f8329ca6c88f7cab223a54a63fdff9941d.png

   1. David Miscavige, chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center and de facto/de jure head of Scientology, is no doubt jealous. He has to spend money on select buys in regional markets to get the yearly Scientology Super Bowl commercial aired, so he can convince his “whales” (huge donors) that Scientology is making its way in the world. He’s probably steaming!

4. Calling @GWInsida:disqus

   Am I only one that after seeing those pictures of attendees feel a little creepy, like old man type creepy?

5. Let’s not forget Screamin’ Sammy Rodriguez. Of all of the guests, it seemed that Sammy Rodriguez was working the hardest at making himself nearly invisible at this event. In a couple shots all you can see is his tiny, grainy head ducking down where he looks about as comfortable as a trucker holding his wife’s purse in front of the dressing rooms at Victoria’s Secret. As President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, I wonder why? Why oh why would Screamin’ Sammy not want to be seen at a White House dinner party heaping burning praises upon President Trump’s bouffant, along with all the other Big Eva Trump Courtiers?

   But you know who Screamin’ Sammy does want to be seen with? That’s right. Another Darryl Strawberry fan. Thank you Darryl.

   Try explaining away your big happy smiley face now Sammy. You sold out your people for a shot at temporary fame and glory, and you know it. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2dfa8e97715d9d22b8bd2eba6af2381c1cb3a1974f691e014ae55892a0fdb125.png

6. I think it is important to add that Senior Pastor Robert Morris and Executive Pastor Debbie Morris of Gateway Church Southlake, TX, along with Apostle and founding Gateway Elder James Robison are avid social media users. They relentlessly Tweet and IG about everything including asking for votes on latest hair cuts and displaying their ketchup supply. No event is too small to shout out in the interest of building up more followers for “Robert Morris Ministries.”

   Former SBC President Robert Jeffress describing the evening on Fox News: “The headline of the evening would be Evangelicals remain enthusiastically supportive of President Trump. This was a beautiful state dinner organized by the First Lady but it almost turned into a campaign rally. I mean, leader after leader stood up and spontaneously started talking about whey they supported President Trump.”

   A state dinner at the White House. Who wouldn’t want to brag? Yet suddenly the Gateway trio go dead silent. Robison’s own media empire, The Stream (paid for by donations intended to save starving babies and rescue child sex slaves) only ran one single article about the event, despite this being a major event covered by almost every major news corp. That one article was limited to “Trump Warns Evangelical Leaders of Increase of Antifa Violence if Dems Win Midterms”. And not a single quote from the founder and sole owner of The Stream who was there that evening? How strange is that?

   They continued to Tweet/IG before and after but not a peep about this very important dinner. Gateway wants to have it both ways. They want to spend tithes to travel to DC and rub elbows with the Trumps and act all important, but when the press is addressing NDAs with porn stars, putting children in cages and other disgusting behavior suddenly they want to conceal their social calendar. They want to have their ‘Layered Nectarines & Cherries with Puff Pastry smothered with White House Honey Ice Cream” and eat it too.

   Too bad… Robert and Debbie flew to DC with the two Daystar Pastors Marcus and Joni Lamb, who Robert just last week explained operate under his authority, fully submitted to him, on their private jet. They made sure to avoid being caught up close in any photos taken by the White House staff or main stream press. But, it turns out that Joni Lamb and Darryl Strawberry didn’t get the memo to keep the pics off of the Internet.

   https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfe0adb6e04327ffb105c4c6fdc0ec8744e05998cf87cd4ee9a719e5a7c89ddc.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aeca4ec947ced3862dc17642efd245961b9cd5a0b92170bd993dad624bbfc97e.png

   1. The irony for a pathological narcissist like “Doctor” Morris is that while he desperately craves respect, he isn’t respected by the very people whose respect he craves. Instead he is manipulated by them. And the people who do respect him (and give money to him), he can’t respect because he believes them to be stupid (by virtue of believing in him when he himself knows he’s a fraud}. And so, the perceived respect is fake and the falsely earned “real” respect isn’t valued by him. And thus the narcissist lives his life in empty torment, completely void of self-respect. In other words he can’t even respect himself. It’s “Doctor” Morris’ worst nightmare come true.

      1. He seems to be working through some of those issues professionally. If you notice, Morris has a habit of laughing at all of his own jokes. Even the ones he has told dozens and dozens of times. The problem is that when he gets carried away in the moment his laugh transitions into a full blown snort. Sometimes it’s a lengthy series of snorting that he can’t control. Unfortunately for the “Doctor”, this betrays his uneducated Longview roots, which is like torture to a man desperately seeking affirmation and respect.

         After this proclivity was pointed out a year or so ago online, Robert’s latest “world class speech coach” apparently convinced him to loudly clear his throat every time he feels the urge to laugh at his own jokes. Clearing his throat requires expelling out, making it impossible to snort like a backwoods goober, which requires breathing in.

         Typically, clearing one’s throat after one’s own joke comes when the joke is off-color/inappropriate, so I’m not sure Robert or the coach thought this one all the way through. The end result is that his sermons now sound like a mashup of someone making an annoying cough syrup commercial while telling dirty jokes. Since Robert tells jokes nonstop throughout his sermons, you get the loud AHHHEMM, HRRGHH,KKHUUUHHHRRHH every 30 seconds or so. I hear it’s pretty annoying for the sound engineers.

7. Well Hoop-te-doo.

8. I added Warren’s suggestions to my list.

   1. Thank you so much for making that list. It appears that many of these pastors are trying to conceal their participation from their flocks, which makes publishing the list all the more important. The list I would like to see even more would be the one that reveals which pastors stood up to lavish praise on Trump? Robison is the only one I have proof of. Does anyone else know? According to Jeffress it was “leader after leader”.

      To add to your attendees list:

      Dr Mike Evans (he’s the tallest guy in the room – very close friend of Jim Garlow. Also the man who bestowed the Friend of Zion Award to Trump on December 11, 2017 in the big picture with the large group of Evangelicals)

      Cherise Franklin – seated next to hubby Jentezen Franklin at Trump’s table

      Darryl’s wife’s name is Tracy. Paula’s son’s name is Brad.

      As a side note, Kelly Shakelford, from Liberty Institute, is also a prominent member of Gateway and even preached a weekend sermon this year. It wasn’t really a sermon, it was really just a series of exaggerated claims of religious persecution intended to scare the 30K attendees into voting for more Trump-like politicians. But he still preaches, teaches at and attends Gateway, bringing the Gateway representation up to SEVEN at this event. Their prominence in supporting Trump is apparently unrivaled in the evangelical world. Certainly no other church has come remotely close to giving more financial and resource support to Trump.

      I really want to know how David Crank suddenly made that list? The guy is a complete nutjob. He has no decorum and says the most ridiculous things, then bursts into machine gun laughter after every inane statement that he makes followed by, “ya know wud-I-mean, ya know wud-I-mean, hahahahahahahaha.” It’s creepy like Dennis Hopper on laughing gas, only more maniacal and annoying.

      His wife and Paula must use the same plastic surgeon in Palm Beach, because Crank – although fast becoming a Daystar darling – is nothing but trouble. His daughter-in-law’s (Mo-Jenni the Ratchet Queen) sermon to Gateway’s Students was so raunchy it had to be deleted, which is rare, given their very low Ratchet standards. I didn’t even think Crank owned a pair of socks. It is noteworthy that this man, who Tweets a couple times an hour, kept his first White House invite a complete secret. Learning from the most deceptive, I see.

      One of the bigger mysteries is who was sitting next to Paula White at Trump’s table? Her son Brad was one table over. This man looks familiar but I can’t place him. There were a handful of attendees from Trump’s Administration so it may not be a pastor. It’s quite an honor to be seated at the President’s table. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edb1ca8e6df4d6c4030b1a72694d74d56668b4a1600daea02839d73123689c9f.png . Does anyone know who this guy is?

      1. That looks a lot like Sean Hannity, one of Trump’s best buddies at Fox. http://www.foxnews.com/person/h/sean-hannity.html

9. I don’t see David Barton’s name on the lengthy list. Come a year from now, when Barton talks about this “history-making event”, he’ll probably claim to his audience that he was there too.

Comments are closed.