Last week, Time magazine reported on a private meeting between the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and five Christian leaders. The same day, two of the five attended the same board meeting of Hispanic leaders and told me first hand they believe Trump is softening on some points.
I knew we had to get the story online. Taylor Berglund worked with me on the story about the meeting that had been set up by Frank Amedia, a pro-Israel pastor from Ohio who believes the Lord showed him last summer, when there were 17 Republican candidates, that Trump would be the nominee.
Later, I recorded a podcast with Amedia whom I have known 10 years. This podcast will air next week on the Charisma Podcast Network.
I also interviewed Mario Bramnick, who attended the Trump Tower meeting as a representative for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC). NHCLC, the largest Hispanic Christian evangelical organization in America, is led by popular pastor Samuel Rodriguez Jr.
Bramnick was joined in the meeting by Sid Roth, Rick Joyner, Frank Amedia, Alex Nuñez and Darrell Scott.
My interview with Bramnick will also air next week on my Strang Report podcast.
What follows is the gist of our Charisma News article that I feel is important enough to share here with the readers of The Strang Report. Apparently there’s a lot of interest in Trump. My interview with Lance Wallnau asking if the Lord may be raising Trump as he did Cyrus was shared more than 22,000 times—which made it one of my three most-shared newsletters ever!
Last weekend at the NHCLC Latin Leaders Fest, Trump sent a video to woo their support. It was rather bland, but you can watch it here. (Hillary Clinton also sent a video that blasted Trump without naming him.)
Though Trump has reportedly not changed his mind regarding immigration, Bramnick told me Trump showed greater understanding for the plight of Latinos than he had in the past.
“I personally felt that I saw a different side of him from some of what has come forth in his statements previously,” Bramnick said. “He seemed to understand the plight of the undocumented, the plight of the Latino here in America, and really showed a willingness to wanting to work with our community.”
Bramnick said NHCLC and Trump actually agreed on many immigration-related issues: the importance of strong border security, comprehensive immigration reform and deportation for illegal immigrants with criminal records.
As president of the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition, Bramnick was also encouraged by Trump’s addition of a pro-Israel adviser, Jason Greenblatt, to his campaign. Trump also reportedly demonstrated genuine concern for the state of religious liberty.
“He told us in the meeting that he’s very, very concerned that Christians are losing their rights in America, that we no longer can even speak or express what we believe,” Bramnick said. “And he did say that if he becomes president, he’s going to change things to make sure that we, as Christians, have our religious liberties restored. He said he’s concerned about Christians and about Jews, and he wants to help.”
Yet Bramnick said he was not endorsing any candidate at this time. Instead, he exhorted evangelicals to be prayerful and seek God’s wisdom during this election cycle.
Bramnick said, “In our decision-making process—especially at such a critical crossroad in America—we need to see which candidate is most pro-life; which candidate is most pro-religious freedom; which candidate is most pro-traditional marriage; and, which candidate is most concerned about the immigrant and the stranger. We are in such a critical time. I don’t think not voting is an option. We’ve got to be sober-minded. We can’t be one issue-oriented.
“We need to cry out for our nation. We know the answer isn’t coming from the Republican party or the Democratic party, but coming from the Lord. We all have expectations of great revival or a third great awakening, but we’re in very difficult times. We’ve been called to be light, we’ve been called to be salt, and we are the ones by the Spirit first—not by power, not by might, but by God’s Spirit—to cry out to God, to decree and declare, to bring our nation back to its original godly values.”
Let me know what you think. Please share this here and on your social media channels. {eoa}
Stephen Strang