Ivanka Donates $50K To Anti-Gay Church To Help Families Separated At Border
Ivanka Trump reportedly donated $50,000 to an anti-LGBTQ church in Texas, after hearing about its efforts to help immigrant children at the southern border, CBN News reported.
Trump’s donation to the Prestonwood Baptist Church was made before her father suspended his administration’s family separation policy last week. The church’s lead pastor, Jack Graham, had announced that Español ministry pastor Gilberto Corredera would be “working to provide solutions to care for children during this terrible immigration crisis.”
It’s still unclear what the Prestonwood Baptist Church is planning to do with the donation or how it plans to support the thousands of immigrant children separated from their families and being held in “tender age” and juvenile facilities.
In a Twitter statement thanking the president, Graham suggested it would plan an event for the children “that will encourage them and make them smile,” and that they would also provide financial aid to families. He provided no additional details.
Thank you Mr President @POTUS for responding to the immigration crisis with compassion and conviction. Your commitment to American values and security displays the character of your presidency
— Jack Graham (@jackngraham) June 20, 2018
Graham serves as a member of the president’s evangelical executive advisory board and has been vocal about his opposition to the LGBTQ community. Prestonwood Baptist Church is known to have fought LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in Plano, Texas, in 2015. When the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality that year, Graham responded by issuing a statement claiming “the family” was “under attack in America.” He urged church members to respond to “spiritual battles with spiritual weapons” to help “conquer sin and judgment,” calling on them to pray “that millions will be converted to Christ.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO