Trump promises to boost church attendance. Can he make Sunday school great again?

Here’s a weird thought for the Sunday morning before the election: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump thinks he will bring people back to church if he wins the presidency. Presumably other people, not himself.

Campaigning at bogus religious right event in August, Trump offered some thoughts about church decline (“Slow and steady in the wrong direction”), what caused it, and how he can  turn it around.

“A lot of it has to do with the fact that you have been silenced. We’re not talking about bad people, we’re talking about good people and they have been silenced. They are our finest people. They’re power has been taken away. Your power has been taken away.”

Trump boasted about putting the Johnson Amendment repeal into the GOP platform, which is pretty interesting since no one was clamoring for this policy plank in the first place.

“You’ll have great power to do good things. Religion will go this way [gestures upward]. I talk about Sunday school. People don’t even know what I’m talking about. We’re going to bring it back. It’s a good thing. It’s a great thing.”

This is one of the most idiotic, incoherent ramblings I saw from Trump during the entire campaign. But it does make me wonder what kind of people Trump supposes will go back to church. Maybe this guy?

Thanks to Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch for pointing me to this item.

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About Jacob Lupfer

Jacob Lupfer is a faith and politics writer. A contributing editor at Religion News Service, Jacob is a frequent commentator on the role of faith in politics and public life. He is a doctoral candidate in political science at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. An expert on the institutional life of American Christianity, Jacob advises faith leaders on how religions people and institutions can more effectively advocate for the common good. During the 2016 election cycle, Jacob is blogging at Patheos about the role of faith in the campaign. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Religion & Politics, Sojourners, Religion Dispatches, The Christian Post, Baptist News Global, and elsewhere. Jacob lives near Baltimore with his wife and their two young children.


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