President Donald Trump spoke to Christians gathered at a Hispanic-majority megachurch in Miami, Florida on Jan. 3.
The visit was focused on Evangelicals to voice their concerns such as pro-life strategies and religious freedom, Stream.org first reported.
Pastor Guillermo Maldonado has led Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús of Miami for 20 years and prayed that all people should come together as one.
“We come together from all denominations, all races together, as the Bible says: to pray for those in authority,” prayed Maldonado. “Father, let Your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. I pray for our president to defy and challenge giants in the world and prayer in this nation.”
The event publicly launched the Evangelicals for Trump coalition.
Maldonado also spoke about supporting the candidate. “So often,” he said, “people vote based on what party your parents were or culture or ethnicity—rather than truth. Yet, what you believe to be the truth, and which candidate most fits that, should be paramount.”
“A nation without faith cannot endure,” said President Trump. “Because justice, goodness, and peace cannot prevail without the glory of almighty God.”
This is not the only time Evangelicals held meetings with the president.
On Oct. 29, leaders held a meeting to pray for the president in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. In December, 50 Christian worship leaders attended the White House. Paula White-Cain orchestrated the event and is also a White House special adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative. Singer Kari Jobe, who attended said the thing that moved her the most was “just how everyone is so for making sure we’re changing people’s lives and not leaving those that are marginalized and those that have been trafficked… they’re working to end these things and change these things. I’ve just been in tears all day…God is moving!”
Exit polls in 2016 showed white evangelical voters voted for Donald Trump, 80-16 percent. He captured 28 percent of the Latino vote in 2016. Sen. Mitt Romney received 27 percent in 2012. According to Pew, Latinos are expected to be about 13.3 percent of the electorate in 2020.