President Donald Trump’s personal spiritual adviser, Paula White, has previously made news with prayers that denounced the ‘demonic networks” and stating that Christians who vote against Trump will be called to account before God. A controversial “prosperity gospel” preacher, White will now lead the president’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative. In a prayer on a conference call White proclaimed “Lord, we ask you to deliver our president from any snare, any setup of the enemy, according to Ephesians 6:12. Any persons [or] entities that are aligned against the president will be exposed and dealt with and overturned by the superior blood of Jesus.” What troubles me most is the implied message that opposing Trump a sin or, at a minimum, an act that will bring divine retribution.

Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed is out with a book that was written in part to rally evangelicals behind President Donald Trump. it was the original title of the book that first caught my notice, “Render to God and Trump.” It is, of course, a reference to the well-known biblical verse, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” The use of the Matthew 22 is curious in that Caesar was ultimately brought to his end as a dictator by the hands of multiple Senators. Not exactly the image that one would relish going into a possible impeachment.