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<\/source><\/picture>Former President Donald Trump was the headliner of the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand summit in Washington, D.C., Friday night following his GOP competitors in the presidential race who weren\u2019t shy about making their case to conservative Christian voters.<\/p>\n
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the second candidate to take the stage after former Vice President Mike Pence<\/a>, and from the start, his speech was squarely focused on making his case to voters.<\/p>\n Throughout his speech, DeSantis repeatedly referred to his gubernatorial record, and while he criticized the Biden administration for \u2018borrowing and spending this country into oblivion\u201d and \u201copening\u201d the U.S. southern border to illegal immigration, he acknowledged that the country faces not just a political but a spiritual decline.<\/p>\n He pointed to how some Democrat-led states forced churches to shut down while strip clubs and liquor stores remained open.<\/p>\n \u201cNot in the state of Florida. We didn\u2019t do that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe protected your right.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis shared his thoughts<\/a> on the central role that faith plays in his leadership as Florida\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know how you could be a leader without having faith in God,\u201d he said. \u201cHow do you become a good leader? One of the first things you need to do is put on the full armor of God.\u201d<\/p>\n With a warning that America is becoming \u201cunmoored from our traditions, faith and even common sense itself,\u201d DeSantis spoke about the grave threats now facing religious liberty that have largely been unseen through \u201cmost of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n Describing the battle lines as the fight to restore religious freedom \u201cas the Founding Fathers intended,\u201d DeSantis outlined a number of specific policies he would pursue as president, including nationwide universal school choice to \u201censure funding for private non-religious school must also be available to private faith-based schools.\u201d<\/p>\n He also vowed to work to \u201censure Judeo-Christian values and traditions are respected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReligious expression is a fundamental civil right,\u201d he said. If elected, he would seek the repeal of the Johnson Amendment<\/a>, which, he said, \u201csuppresses the speech of our religious leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis also said sex and gender in government documents will refer to \u201cthe only two sexes that actually exist\u201d and pledged to stop men from competing with females, which he called \u201cwrong and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n As he closed, he also voiced a sense of urgency with a thinly veiled criticism of Trump, who is considered the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We must win in 2024. The time for excuses is over … we need to get the job done. I can tell you this: I will get the job done.”<\/p>\n By the time entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took the stage, the tone of the night had shifted following an emotional plea from Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.<\/p>\n Ramaswamy, who, if elected, would become the first Hindu<\/a> to serve as president, spoke less on matters of faith and more about what he called a \u201cnational identity crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he vehemently disagrees with what he called the \u201cone bipartisan consensus\u201d left, namely that the U.S. is a “nation in decline.”<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe that we have to be ancient Rome. I don\u2019t think we have to be a nation in decline, he said. \u201cI think the truth is, as a nation, we\u2019re really just a little young, actually. Goin\u2019 through our own version of adolescence, figuring out who we’re really going to be when we grow up.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 The truth is we are still yet a nation in our ascent, maybe the early stages of our ascent. Maybe we\u2019re not even yet at base camp … still that shining city on a hill.\u201d<\/p>\n At times resembling a young then-Senator Barack Obama in his affectation, rhythm, and even his effervescent optimism, Ramaswamy \u2014 a 38-year-old self-identified \u201cmillennial\u201d \u2014 said his generation is \u201cstarved for purpose and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of a national identity crisis right now. \u2026 When you have a black hole that runs that deep, poison fills the void. \u2026 We are hungry for a cause. We are starved for meaning and purpose and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n While Ramaswamy spoke eloquently on his background as the \u201ckid of legal immigrants\u201d and the urgent need to eliminate national quota systems, his speech\u2019s only real foray into the Christian faith was an illustration from the book of Exodus.<\/p>\n Speaking of the Israelites after they had escaped from Pharaoh in Egypt and wandered in the wilderness, he pointed to humanity\u2019s universal desire for worship.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do they say? We want to go back and be ruled by the Pharaoh,\u201d he said. \u201cSee, if you don’t bend the knee to the real thing, you\u2019re going to bend the knee to something.\u201d<\/p>\n Midway through his speech, Ramaswamy was reportedly<\/a> asked by a heckler, “Who’s your god?” but was unfazed by the question and pressed on with his address. It\u2019s unclear whether Ramaswamy heard the comment or who the heckler was.<\/p>\n Above all, he urged Americans to speak up for what they believe, regardless of the cost.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best litmus test for America\u2019s civic health is the percentage of people who feel free to say what they actually think in public,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Where Ramaswamy seemed to avoid matters of faith and religious liberty, Trump spoke of both as foundational to his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n Before the former president could even take the stage, however, he paused as the crowd delivered what was easily the loudest reception of the night, one which included chants of \u201cUSA! USA! USA!\u201d<\/p>\n He then wasted no time in reminding the audience of his record of standing in the gap for religious liberty in general and Christians in particular, touching on what he called America\u2019s great \u201cJudeo-Christian heritage\u201d and his leadership in standing with Israel and reopening the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n \u201cNo president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have and I will keep fighting for Christians as long as I can,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump later spoke of that fight as a spiritual battle involving \u201cevil and demonic forces.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to and had to stand up to the communists, the Marxists, the atheists, the evil and demonic forces that want to destroy our country,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re destroying our country. I took their fire and I did it gladly. I’m protecting the people in this room; I’m protecting the people of this nation.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAnd I have to tell you, it’s not easy, but it’s something that’s such an honor to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to himself as the \u201cmost pro-life president in American history,\u201d Trump received another standing ovation when he said he was proud to appoint the U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn \u201cthe moral and constitutional atrocity known as Roe v. Wade<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n He also touted his work to reinstate the so-called Mexico City policy, stopping taxpayer funding for what he coined the \u201cabortion industrial complex,\u201d and being the first sitting president to attend a March for Life rally.<\/p>\n Turning his sights on the 2024 election, Trump described the legal \u201ctrials and tribulations\u201d he\u2019s facing after the indictments <\/a>in Georgia and elsewhere as \u201celection interference.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing is high-level election interference \u2026 just like they stuff ballot boxes, just like they do so many other things,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s happening for a single reason, because I\u2019m the only candidate they don\u2019t want to run against.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, “In South Carolina, Ron is in fourth place now. I\u2019m leading by 35 points. … We\u2019re leading by a lot. But Ron has actually dropped to fourth place [in South Carolina].\u00a0 And he\u2019s dropped to second place in other states. And it\u2019s pretty amazing what\u2019s happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a beautiful thing to watch. Oh, I shouldn\u2019t say that. We have religious people. I should not be saying that, right? But religious people want to win. We want to win. And we want to win because we\u2019re going to do a great job for the country. We have to finish what we started.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I will say that \u2026 if I wasn\u2019t running, or if I was in fifth place or fourth place or third place or 10th place, none of this horrible election interference would have happened. It wouldn\u2019t be happening. I wouldn\u2019t be going through any trials and tribulations. I wouldn\u2019t have had the mug shot.”<\/p>\n Trump said while he believes the 2020 election was \u201crigged,\u201d America as a nation cannot afford a repeat in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn’t lose. It was a rigged election,\u201d said Trump. \u201cSo they rigged the presidential election in 2020 and were not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024 \u2026we\u2019ll lose our country, we\u2019re not gonna have a country.\u201d<\/p>\n Denouncing what he called an \u201coutrageous attack on Christians everywhere,\u201d Trump condemned what he said was the Biden administration\u2019s role in getting a D.C. jury to convict five pro-life activists for protesting outside an abortion clinic \u2014 all this, he added, while all this while ANTIFA and other groups burn down Portland,<\/a>Minneapolis<\/a>, Seattle <\/a>and other U.S. cities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe political oppression is immoral and un-American and very dangerous,\u201d he said, pledging to appoint a special task force to \u201crapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration.”<\/p>\n Pledging to \u201cnever again\u201d allow the federal government to target \u201creligious believers\u201d and other Americans of faith, Trump also made what could be considered more conventional political promises, including regaining energy independence and protecting Medicare and Social Security for seniors.<\/p>\n But it was his promise to bring an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia that led him to point to Scripture.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the Bible says, \u2018Blessed are the peacemakers,\u2019 and I was a peacemaker,\u201d he added. We got out of Syria, we got out of Iraq.<\/p>\n \u201cI will prevent World War III \u2026 this will be an obliteration of the world, and I will stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/03\/150363_w_400_267.webp\")
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