Robert Jeffress, the pastor at First
Baptist Church in Dallas, on Thursday tweeted a photo of himself with
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
In the photo, Trump and Jeffress are
seen giving a thumbs up.
“Honored to pray for my friend,
@realDonaldTrump, at tonight's Dallas rally,” Jeffress
messaged.
The tweet, which Trump also posted on
his account, came amid claims from Trump that he's a better friend to
the LGBT community than Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee.
But Jeffress is openly hostile to gay
rights. In 2013, he compared gay sex – which
he's called a sin – to plugging
in a U.S. television into a European outlet. He's also claimed
that marriage rights for gay couples would lead to a government
crackdown on Christian radio stations. Two years later, he
warned
that allowing openly gay adult scout leaders would hurt the Boy
Scouts of America. Most recently, he chided
businesses that support LGBT rights.
“[W]hen states are being faced with
the loss of business, they tend to fold real quickly. And I've said
often that the greatest threat to freedom of religion in America is
not ISIS, it's the Chamber of Commerce. I mean, it's the businesses
that say to our representatives, 'Oh, don't pass laws like that.
Don't pass these religious freedom laws because people will interpret
that as anti-gay and we'll lose business,'” he said.
(Related: Dan
Savage: Gays “not gonna fall” for Donald Trump's claims of being
a friend.)