‘He’s a religious bigot’: Romney leads criticism of baptist minister who famously said ‘you can’t be saved by being a Jew’ and who will give prayer that will open US Embassy in Jerusalem in front of Jared and Ivanka
Robert Jeffress, a Dallas-based Southern Baptist pastor, will deliver the prayer to open the new US embassy in Jerusalem
Jeffress has made offensive remarks in the past about Jews, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, and Buddhists
Mitt Romney, the former GOP presidential nominee, blasted Jeffress as a ‘religious bigot’
White House advisers Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly received a blessing from a rabbi who previously compared black people to monkeys
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is one of the two chief rabbis in Israel and used the word ‘kushi’—a biblical term now considered derogatory for black people
By ARIEL ZILBER and JAMES GORDON
DAILYMAIL.COM
14 May 2018
A Southern Baptist pastor who once called Mormonism ‘a cult,’ said Jews were ‘going to hell,’ and that Catholicism was ‘the genius of Satan’ has been picked by the Trump administration to lead the prayer for the new US embassy in Jerusalem.
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who is himself a Mormon, is leading the chorus of criticism against ‘religious bigot’ Robert Jeffress, who will speak in front of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on Monday.
In a tweet Sunday night, the former Massachusetts governor who is now running for a Senate seat from Utah criticized Jeffress for his remarks about Jews, Mormons and Islam.
Romney said, ‘Robert Jeffress says “you can’t be saved by being a Jew,” and “Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.” He’s said the same about Islam.’
The liberal group Media Matters reports on its website that Jeffress made the remarks cited by Romney in a 2011 speech at the conservative Values Voter Summit.
Jeffress responded in a tweet of his own by defending his view that ‘salvation is through faith in Christ alone.’
‘Historic Christianity has taught for 2,000 years that salvation is through faith in Christ alone. The fact that I, along with tens of millions of evangelical Christians around the world, continue to espouse that belief, is neither bigoted nor newsworthy,’ Jeffress said in the tweet.
The role of Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, a Southern Baptist megachurch, underlines the significance of the Jerusalem event as an appeal to Christian conservatives, part of President Donald Trump’s base of supporters.
The outrage over Jeffress comes amidst a backlash against the Trump adminstration’s embrace of an Israeli cleric who also made racist remarks about black people.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump received a blessing in Jerusalem on Sunday from Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who once compared black people to monkeys.
Yosef was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for making the crude remarks.
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