[NEWS] U.S Pastors, worship leaders pray for Trump amid impeachment Saga

By Male Marvin

Several prominent Christian Pastors in the United States including Brian Houston, the senior pastor of Hillsong Church, have visited the White House with worship leaders where they all prayed for President Donald Trump. 

According to Fox News, about 50 worship leaders gathered for a faith briefing Friday organized by Paula White-Cain, President Trump’s personal pastor and special adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative in the White House.

“All 50 of us crammed into the Oval Office. He sat at his desk and he said pray for me,” Sean Feucht, a Bethel Music worship leader who is running for Congress in California’s Third Congressional District, told Fox News.

“We just laid our hands on him and prayed for him. It was like a real intense, hardcore prayer. It was so wild,” Feucht said. “I could not believe he invited us in. That he carved out time to meet with us.”

The Christian Post says Worship leader Kari Jobe had tears in her eyes as she spoke about how moved she was by the commitment of the Trump administration to changing people’s lives. 

“I’m just so thankful to be a part of this today and see what God’s doing in our White House,” she said.

Brian Houston opened up about the faith-based meeting saying, “When America is strong, the world is a better place. What a great opportunity it’s been to see some of the initiatives that are happening to help freedom of religion.”

Fox News reports that the group worshipped, led by Carnes and Jobe, Bethel Music co-founders Brian and Jenn Johnson, Brit Nicole, and others. They prayed for an hour in the Eisenhower building.

Ivanka Trump, according to sources, discussed women’s rights, prison reform, maternity leave and the economy. Sam Brownback, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, addressed the group and answered questions about what America is doing for religious liberty around the world.

USA Vice President Mike Pence was quoted as saying it was “wonderful” to have the worship leaders stop by the White House. 

He promised that the Trump administration would continue defending religious freedom, the Christian Post reported.

“America is a proud Nation of believers and our Administration will always defend the freedom of religion of every American, of every faith,” he said. 

Trump impeachment inquiry: What is it about?

Donald Trump is facing a process that could eventually see him removed from office. The BBC reported that this inquiry centres on whether or not he improperly sought help from Ukraine to boost his chances of re-election in 2020.

Public hearings began last month in the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Democrats.

President Trump, who is a Republican, strongly denies any wrongdoing, according to the BBC.

What is he accused of doing wrong?

President Trump is accused of pressuring Ukraine to dig up damaging information on one of his main Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.

Hunter worked for a Ukrainian company when Joe Biden was US vice-president.

The president is accused of dangling two things as bargaining chips to Ukraine – withholding $400m of military aid to Ukraine that had already been allocated by Congress, and a White House meeting for Ukraine’s president.

This would all amount to an abuse of presidential power, using the office for personal political gain and to the detriment of national security. Ukraine was using that money in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

What is the evidence against Trump?

A formal complaint from a whistleblower – an unnamed intelligence official who wrote a letter expressing concern about Mr Trump’s 25 July call with President Volodymyr Zelensky – kicked off the impeachment process in early September.

A rough transcript of the call revealed that Mr Trump had urged President Zelensky to investigate discredited allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden.

The call came shortly after Mr Trump had blocked the release of millions of dollars in US military aid to Ukraine. A senior official later testified that the president made clear the release of the aid was conditional on Mr Biden being investigated, but the White House denies this.

In a series of public hearings, a procession of US officials have testified that there was a White House shadow foreign policy led by the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Its aim was to get Ukraine to open an investigation into the Bidens and declare as much publicly.

What is his defence?

Mr Trump denies using US military aid as a bargaining chip with Mr Zelensky and has repeatedly insisted his call with Ukraine’s leader was “perfect”.

He has called the impeachment inquiry a “witch hunt” by Democrats and elements of the media.

He also says it was appropriate to ask Ukraine to investigate “corruption”, referring to the energy firm where Hunter Biden worked.

The Republican defence comes in three parts:

– Ukraine’s president said he felt no pressure

– The Ukrainians were unaware the aid was held back

– US military aid was eventually released

The BBC, Fox News and The Christian Post contributed to this report.