Donald Trump with anti-gay pastor Robert Jeffress at a 2016 rally. Photo: Screenshot/Twitter @DanScavinoPowerful anti-LGBTQ Texas pastor Robert Jeffress said that the U.S. was “founded as a Christian Nation” and that conservative Christians should “impose their values on society.”
Jeffress, who is the senior pastor at the 14,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, was on Real America’s Voice talking about rising Christian nationalist sentiment in the U.S.
Christian nationalism is the idea that the U.S. should be an explicitly Christian nation and that there should not be a separation of church and state.
“We always put our love for God above everything, even allegiance to our country,” he said about conservative Christians. “But that’s not what they’re really talking about. Listen carefully. They say they are opposed to people who say America was founded as a Christian nation, Americans who believe not only in the spiritual heritage of our nation, but believe that we ought to use elections to help return our country to its Christian foundation.”
“If that’s Christian nationalism, count me in,” the pastor laughed. “Because that’s what we have to do. And what’s so hypocritical about this, Tim, is the left don’t mind at all imposing their values on our country through the election process. They don’t mind forcing their pro-abortion, pro-transgender, pro-open borders policy upon our nation.”
“But they object when conservative Christians try to impose their values on society at large. It’s complete hypocrisy.”
Jeffress has had access to some of the most powerful Republicans in the country. He was a member of Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board and had Mike Pence speaking in his church back when he was vice president. In 2017, he spoke at a private inaugural service for the Trump and Pence families.
He also has a long history of anti-LGBTQ sentiment. In his 2004 book Hell? Yes! (which was re-published in 2008 under the title Outrageous Truth… Seven Absolutes You Can Still Believe) contained the “truth” that “homosexuality is a perversion.”
In that chapter, Jeffress wrote about a high school senior called “Susan” who had just come out.
Jeffress said he asked her how “God feels about your homosexual activity?”
“I understand now that God created me with these desires, desires that I have had since I was a little girl,” she responded, according to Jeffress. “For years I have been miserable trying to deny those feelings and have seriously contemplated suicide. But now that I have accepted who I am, I am happier than I have ever been in my life!”
Most people would probably be glad that a teenager who was considering suicide was feeling better, but not Jeffress. He wrote that “homosexual relationships are neither ‘normal’ nor ‘healthy’” and that gay activists are really working “to cover over the darkest secret associated with this perversion: child molestation.”
“None of us gets a ‘pass’ from God for rebellious behavior just because it arises from our innate desires, regardless of the cause of those desires,” he wrote. “But here is the good news: Through the power of Jesus Christ, all of us can be freed from acting on those desires.”
He added that it’s a “myth” that “homosexuality is a fixed desire and cannot be changed.”
As for Susan, he concluded: “I wish I could report that after hearing the above information, she renounced her homosexual tendencies, confessed her sin to God, and left my office with a newfound attraction to the opposite sex. She didn’t.”
Jeffress has supported conversion therapy as late as 2014 when he told a local TV station that he supports conversion therapy.
“I have talked to people who have undergone therapy like this and they have said as Christians it has helped them manage their temptations,” Jeffress said. “No therapy can remove those desires that we all have in different areas of life, but as a Christian, we have the power to overcome those desires and I think that’s the true reparative therapy that only comes to those who know Jesus Christ his savior.”
In 2008, he delivered a sermon entitled “Gay is not OK” in which he called gay people “filthy.”
“It is so degrading that it is beyond description,” he said in the sermon. “And it is their filthy behavior that explains why they are so much more prone to disease.”
He has also said that marriage equality is a sign of the “last days” and in 2011 he said that he learned about the “brilliant plan of gay activists to normalize the abnormal practice of homosexuality using the same brainwashing techniques that had been used by the Chinese for hundreds of years.”
In 2015, he insisted that Christians are being “martyred” by LGBTQ people for being asked to follow the law.
“What is happening is that we are becoming desensitized to the persecution of Christians just not globally, but also in our Country,” he said. “The fact is that we are being told that Christians who refuse to serve a wedding cake to a gay couple, that they are extremists, its OK to take their livelihood and shut down their business. I believe that we are getting desensitized to that, which will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist, to persecute and martyr Christians without any repercussions whatsoever.”
Jeffress has denied that he is a Christian nationalist in the past, but he has also said that the separation of church and state was only meant to keep the government from favoring one form of Christianity over others, not to keep the government from forcing people to follow Christianity at all.
Powerful pastor Robert Jeffress says conservative Christians should “impose their values on society”
Notice that when denied the right to publicly discriminate and hate others these Christians claim it is an attack on them and their religion. He is proud of their attempts to oppress others and very open about pushing their church believes, forcing everyone to live according to his Chruch doctrines. What a horrible world that would be. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 
Reblogged this on NEW BLOG HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Jeffries comment: I believe that we are getting desensitized to that, which will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist, to persecute and martyr Christians without any repercussions whatsoever.” is fodder for a post that I plan to write. Little do these “Christians” know but they are in lockstep following the very Antichrist (if you believe in such fairy tales) they warn against.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Nan. I look forward to reading the post. If I miss it (I am missing a lot of posts right now trying to deal with things) drop me a reminder.
Yes the fact is we are getting desensitized but it to what people like him are doing forcing their religious beliefs on to the public. What he calls the left forcing their values is simply non-discrimination and understanding that society has advanced and our understandings about things have improved. We know more about medicine, the human body, biology, psychology, every science field of study than we did during the time of his holy book and the 1950s they seem to adore.
I am seriously tired of people trying to force us to deny everything that we have learned just to stick with either their comfort level or the understanding of their out of date holy books. I don’t want to be a backward stupid country that claims the earth is only 6,000 years old, that women menstruating are not to be in the same home. I don’t want to be forced to live according to incorrect religious ideas simply because that was the way it was done so long ago. Women are not property to be subservient to any / all men. I read a religious leader the other day that claimed womans consent to sex was not important, but gods consent was all that mattered. So an unmarried woman can never consent, but married women can never withhold consent due to requirement to obey and fulfill the desires of men per god’s commands. WTF!!! But these people don’t care what anyone else wants, they want their deity to be forced on everyone, their views of the world enforced by every means possible, their church doctrines made law, and education be done according to religion not facts or evidence. I am so tired of these people.
I use to think that there was a way to reach these people, but I don’t believe that now. I think they are either like maga people or are maga people. They don’t want truth or reality, they want their fantasy world, their make believe cos-play, they want an old time TV show rather than the real world we have today. I cannot reach them. They want agreement not facts. Anyway, the news shows are on and it is so far all doom and gloom for the democrats, described in horrific terms of fear and over the top hype. Damn it, that is going to depress democratic turnout. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll try to remember to let you know, but Scottie … I understand you’re dealing with other things besides the blogging world. However, I want to encourage you to spend some of your computer time reading other posts. It’s apparent a lot of your time is taken up reading/watching news stories and posting on your own blog … but other folks have been writing about some pretty amazing stuff as well. It might be good for your SPIRIT to spend a bit of time outside the news world … ya’ think?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Nan. I agree, no argument from me. And it really other than a day or two has not been the posting on my own blog. The thing most keeping me from the other blogs is my own inability to focus on replying to my comments. When I get to with in two or sometimes three days I can use the bell to reply to comments and in that as I go along are other blogs I follow and the posts I read in between comments. But for weeks now I have not been able to get closer than 8 days out. I work on it and sometimes get the days down to 3 or 4 days out and then the next day instead of catching up I get caught up in other things or end up in bed most of the day, so miss a day, the next day I am back to 8 days out. I got up this morning at 4 AM and have been up all day with the goal of answering comments, but as I slowly caught up, I ended up cooking lunch for everyone, spending time in other projects. Part of the problem is I am in the kitchen living room right now instead of in my private office, so I am having to engage more with other people and I am doing more of the kitchen tasks. But also as you say there is a lot of hurricane stuff to do, this is the time for redoing our Medicaid part D stuff, there is the cat I have to spend a lot more time feeding and caring for, I am looking things up for Ron. I am having more pain issues than before I think because of what I tried to do after the hurricane, and we are trying to walk every morning again when we can. It is frustrating because everyday I say today I am going to catch up and then I don’t do it. Like a kid with homework, my mind wont stay focused on the task at hand. But I plan to do everything possible to get caught up today and tomorrow so I can start enjoying other blogs again. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeffress is just one awful piece of work. He’s one of the ones I’m pretty sure don’t believe in God because if they did, they’d be too afraid to do these things.
Besides-it’s their own sect that started out saying that the AC would be Middle-Eastern and very physically attractive, and that the One World System would be Soviet Communism (I remember this because a few of my family went this direction. It concerned me then, when I was 17. For the same reasons I worry now. I can say that there are organizations of Christians working against the spread of this stuff, with more than thoughts and prayers, but it needs so much more repudiation everywhere, or at least more than we generally tend to see.
Also, totally agreed. Nan; I read the post and commented above, then read yours, but I’m posting anyway too.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hello Ali. I think he does believe in what he is saying because he believes his god favors what he does and hates what he does. He has made god in his image. He wants a made up world, not reality. He wants a society built on the idea that god thought the perfect society was 2,200 years ago. Think on that these people think the perfect society that pleased their god was what was done so long ago in the past. But while they deny the science they don’t like, deny the medical advances they don’t agree with, deny the modern understanding of biology, and deny the equality of all people but they sure won’t give up their modern conveniences and technologies. They will just what the moral police in the Islamic countries do, use phones and apps as a weapon against the women and the LGBTQ+. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nobody … NOBODY is forcing abortion or same-sex marriage on anyone. This Jeffress character is a CREEP! He’s a bigot of the worst sort, and I have but one wish for him, that I shall keep silent lest I be considered cruel. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Jill. I don’t think you would be wrong in your wishes for him. I have a few of those for him myself. Even though we understand that abortion and same sex marriage is not being forced on them and don’t affect them, they think just having it exist is forcing it on them. Just having the right to same sex marriage is forcing it on them. Having porn exist for those that want to view it is forcing porn on them. To them its existence is the same as making them view it all the time. It is never about their own actions or controlling themselves, it is always about controlling others, stopping others from having access or having something that these people think is against their gods wishes, which really means against their wishes as they hide behind their god. Women being able to have birth control in their insurance was forcing Hobby Lobby to support birth control according to the lawsuit they won. Just having LGBTQ+ materials, books, videos with either characters or story lines is forcing sex instruction on their kids according to these Christian maga in red states. Again it is not to stop their kids from seeing it, but all kids regardless of their parent’s beliefs or wishes. Because if it is there even if they don’t read it, it is forcing it on them. That is their world view and it is projections because they want to force a book on all of us. Their holy book, the bible, the book of Mormon, and their religious doctrine. Only when we are all forced to be like them, act like them, worship like them, eat like them, learn what they demand only what they want us to learn just like them, will they not have the sinful things that make their god cry forced on them. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person