A church in Nigeria, the Living Christ Mission Inc. embarked on a street procession on Sunday, October 25 in support of President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming November 3 polls in the United States.
The evangelical Christian church located in Onitsha, Anambra, counts among its reasons for the support of Trump’ his aversion to abortion, support for the state of Israel as well as other reasons members say are their Christian values.
Led by the church founder, the Most Rev. Prof. Daddy Hezekiah, nicknamed the International Mayor of Peace, members of the church marched amid drumming and singing through the streets of Onitsha, Anambra in southeast Nigeria.
A video that was posted on the church’s Facebook prior to the march said the occasion was in “favor of Donald Trump and the United States of America”. The video also quoted the Bible verse from Proverbs 29:2 to buttress the church’s support.
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice but when the wicked rule, the people groan,” the verse said.
Trump is widely supported by many Africans on the continent where conservative Christian values are pervasive.
Recall that in June of this year, the leader of Loveworld Inc, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, held a church service, partly in support of the US president, saying: “Pray for him because when God places any of his children in a position, hell sometimes would do everything to destroy that individual.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ezlQS_Ly2R4
“They are angry at Trump for supporting Christians, you better know it. So the real ones that they hate are you who are Christians,” Oyakhilome added.
Many evangelical Christian groups in Africa, which are mostly anti-abortion, against gay rights and support Israel, were not keen on Mr Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, despite his Kenyan heritage.
“The Obama administration had been pushing a liberal agenda here in Africa and that agenda was of concern to some of us Christian leaders. It was a relief that during Trump’s time he’s taken a bit of a back seat,” Richard Chogo, a pastor at the Deliverance Church in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, told the BBC.
He praised the Trump administration for cutting funding to organisations, such as Marie Stopes, that provide contraception and safe abortion services in several African countries.
Mr Trump recently reminded his Christian supporters in a series of tweets that religious freedom and abortion were at stake if he did not win in November.
But Archdeacon Ezeji, a vicar and archdeacon in the Missionary Christ Anglican Church in Nigeria’s south-eastern Enugu state, sees it more in terms of an end-of-times biblical prophecy preached by evangelicals.
“Whether he loses or wins it’s not about Trump, it’s about what God is saying,” he said.
“Trump is like the biblical almond tree which weather watchers used to read for the signs of the time… if he wins it means we have more time, if he loses then we don’t have much time.”
