Megachurch pastor lashes out at 'evangelical elites' for not supporting Trump

Pastor Robert Jeffress, a member of President Donald Trump's "evangelical executive advisory board," took aim at fellow fundamentalists who refuse to get behind the president.

"This is hypocritical of the evangelicals who say their personal piety won't allow them to support President Trump," Jeffress said on the American Family Radio show. "I mean, my gosh – how self-righteous is that? When did personal piety ever become a test of who you were going to vote for president?"

He argued that many Republicans had no problem backing "twice-married, former Democrat, and abortion-supporting Ronald Reagan when he ran against monogamous, Baptist Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter in 1980" — and that most "everyday conservative Christians" still support Trump.

Trump did not create the "divide" among evangelicals, Jeffress explained, but he did "expose" it.

"What you're seeing is the divide between these 'evangelical elites' who continue to resist President Trump's policies and the vast majority of evangelicals in the pews who swept him into office and continue to support him," he said.

"What it comes down to is the 'evangelical elite' really don't embrace these values," Jeffress continued. "They are more concerned about fixing the problem with DREAMers than they are about protecting the life of the unborn. Or when it comes to Israel, they are much more concerned about the plight of the 'poor Palestinians' than they are of protecting the Jews' right to inhabit that land God gave them."

Most of those "elites," he concluded, would be likely to admit privately that "they really do believe  ought to be forced to bake that wedding cake for a gay wedding."