Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is a "lost person" who must "repent of sin" and turn to faith in Christ, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has said.
In an interview with CBN, Russell Moore said his "primary prayer for Donald Trump is that he would first of all repent of sin and come to faith in Jesus Christ."
"That's my prayer for any lost person," Moore said. "And then that he would be somebody who would act in terms of principles of justice, which would mean a change, not only in terms of the way in which he's changing the moral character of people, including the people that are supporting him and getting on the bandwagon, having had to excuse things that they've never had to excuse before and then of course in terms of being a ruler in a limited sense within an American constitutional framework who understands principles of justice."
That, Moore said, would be a "remarkable change." He added that the "same thing would be true" for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who he referred to as "someone who has a different set of problems and issues."
"But really, regardless of what happens in November, my primary focus is not November of 2016," the theologian concluded. "My primary focus is 2017 and preparing the church to be a church which is going to have to be a sign of contradiction regardless of whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is in The White House."
Moore has previously spoken out about Trump and Clinton, and said the two presidential hopefuls represented "an amoral sort of vision of America that isn't what we believe in".
In an op-ed published to his website in March, Moore argued that voters should not hesitate to vote for a "minor party candidate" instead of two major party candidates who are both "morally disqualified."
"As Christians, we are not responsible for the reality of our two-party system or for the way others exercise their citizenship, but we will give an account for how we delegate our authority," Moore stated. "Our primary concern is not the election night victory party, but the Judgment Seat of Christ."
In turn, the Manhattan billionaire businessman-turned-politician slammed Moore via Twitter, referring to the Christian leader as "a nasty guy with no heart" and "a terrible representative of Evangelicals".
Earlier, Trump again took to Twitter to call prominent Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, who was the national co-chair for former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's campaign, a "phony" and a "bad guy."
However, the billionaire businessman has identified himself as a Christian, and has gained the support of a number of religious leaders, including Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church, and President of Liberty University Jerry Falwell Jr. He has also been endorsed by Willie Robertson, the conservative Christian star of the reality show "Duck Dynasty."
