Trump tells Value Voters Summit: ‘We don’t worship government. We worship God.’
President Donald J. Trump returned to the annual Value Voters Summit held in Washington Friday fulfilling another promise that he made when as a candidate last year.
“We know that it’s the family and the church, not government officials, that know best how to create strong and loving communities,” the president said. “Above all else, we know this. In America, we don’t worship government. We worship God.”
For 12 years, the Family Research Council has put on the voters’ summit as a means to bring Christian voters into contact with conservative politicians. Trump’s address was the first by a seating president.
Trump’s address was very well received and as the president went over his administration’s efforts to keep the promises he made to Christian voters and working families in the 2016 campaign.
“We see it in the mothers and the fathers who get up at the crack of dawn, they work two jobs and sometimes three jobs,” he said.
They sacrifice every day for the furniture – future of their children. They have to go out. They go out, they work. The future of their children is everything to them. They put it before everything. And they make sure that the future of their children has God involved in it. So important to them.
We see it in the church communities that come together to care for one another, to pray for each other, and to stand strong with each other in times of need. The people who grace our lives and fill our homes and build our communities are the true strength of our nation and the greatest hope for a better tomorrow.
As long as we have pride in our country, confidence in our future, and faith in our God, then America will prevail. We will defeat every evil, overcome every threat, and meet every single challenge. We will defend our faith and protect our traditions. We will find the best in each other and in ourselves.
The president also name-checked one of the most high-profile religious freedom cases from the tenure of President Barack Obama: the Little Sisters of the Poor and their petition in the federal courts seeking relief from the Obama administration mandate that required employers to provide free contraceptives. Besides the fact that the sisters have all taken a vow of celibacy, Catholic doctrine teaches that birth control is a sin.
Trump severely weakened the birth control mandate Oct. 6 with wide and generous exemption provisions, which lifts the burden from the nuns–although they may still continue their suit to reach a constitutional resolution before the Supreme Court.
“We have also taken action to protect the conscience rights of groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. You know what they went through,” he said.
“What they went through, they were going through hell,” he said. “We want to really point out that the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith, they live by a beautiful calling, and we will not let bureaucrats take away that calling or take away their rights. We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values.”
One of the hallmarks of the president’s addresses is his interaction with members of the audience.
At one point, he called out to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, about whether he could skip next year’s summit.
“Can I take next year off or not? Or do I have to be back?” he asked.
“He’s saying they’re saying no,” he said. “That means no.”
The crowd laughed and cheered as they would with an old friend–besides, they already knew he is coming back.
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