Trump Vows to 'Stop All Attacks on Religion'
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to end all assaults on religion and bring back the freedom to exercise one's faith that many evangelicals feel they have lost in recent years.
Trump was at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's yearly gathering on Thursday when he made the remarks, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
"It is time to put a stop to the attacks on religion," Trump told the more than one thousand evangelicals gathered. "We will end the discrimination against people of faith."
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The president said Christians are "under siege" but vowed that the "government will once again celebrate and protect religious freedom."
Prior to Trump's speech, former FBI director James Comey spoke to an intelligence committee and claimed that Trump asked him to withdraw an investigation into ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as a pledge of loyalty to his administration and presidency, TIME reported.
The president sacked Comey last month.
While he made no mention of the former FBI director's comments and allegations, Trump decried his critiques after he quoted a verse from the Book of Isaiah.
"Learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless, please the case of the widow," he said.
Trump then followed the verse with a criticism of his detractors.
"The entrenched interests and failed bitter voices in Washington will do everything in their power to try and stop us from this righteous cause, to try to stop all of you," said Trump. "They will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice, but we will not back down from doing what is right."
Because as the Bible tells us, we know the truth will prevail," he said.
