Bias Watch

Donald Trump invited a pastor who said gays “want to recruit your kids” to deliver Easter blessing

Donald Trump and Harry Jackson in the Oval Office
Donald Trump and Harry Jackson in the Oval Office Photo: YouTube screenshot/NBC News

Donald Trump invited a virulently anti-LGBTQ pastor to deliver an Easter blessing from the White House this past Friday.

Bishop Harry Jackson has gotten national media attention since 2012 for his opposition to LGBTQ rights and extreme statements, which include saying that LGBTQ people are “folks who cannot reproduce who want to recruit your kids” and said that the movement for marriage equality proved that the U.S. was “just like during the times of Hitler.”

Related: Bishop Harry Jackson says gays ‘want to recruit your kids’

Jackson once said that marriage equality is “a Satanic plot to destroy our seed and told his fellow Christians to “steal back the rainbow. We can’t let the gays have it.”

In 2018, he said that Black Lives Matter will fail because there are lesbians in its leadership.

“We can’t have social justice, we need biblical justice,” Jackson said. “It matters that Black Lives Matter has, at the head, a few lesbians who are against the patriarchal society.”

And blogger Joe Jervis found a few of Jackson’s greatest hits from Twitter.

The list could go on – Jackson has spent the better part of a decade speaking in mainstream media and at conservative Christian events making extreme statements about LGBTQ people.

But apparently his statements weren’t too extreme for the Trump administration. On Friday, he delivered the Easter Blessing from the White House, standing three feet away from Trump for social distancing. Trump introduced him as a “highly respected gentleman.”

Jackson thanked Trump and Pence for their efforts “to protect our nation” from coronavirus.

“You’ve included the churches in your relief efforts,” Jackson told Trump, referring to the CARES Act Congress passed late last month. “Many churches would have had to close down had it not been for your insightful leadership. So thank you both.”

He then read from the Bible and prayed with Trump and Mike Pence. Trump called his blessing “beautiful.”

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