Donald Trump is a big hit with prosperity gospel televangelists

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last updated 30 September 2015

Donald Trump has found an in with the religious community. Although he might not be "much of a conservative Christian" — especially in comparison to some of the other Republican presidential contenders — Politico reports that there's one group with whom The Donald has found something in common: "Charismatic televangelists who believe God wants you to be rich."

"Trump seems to be positioning himself as a secular version of the health-and-wealth televangelists," Trump critic and president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention Russell Moore told Politico. Just this Monday, Trump sat down with "roughly three dozen" evangelical Christian leaders at the Trump Tower, in a two-and-a-half hour meeting that ended with the evangelicals praying for The Donald. Despite stiff competition from Ben Carson, Trump still holds the number one spot in the Republican field among evangelical voters.

But even though Trump has found a place with "prosperity gospel types" — who, Moore notes, "are considered by mainstream evangelicals to be heretics" — he might have a harder time finding common ground with other religious groups. "They're very comfortable with big personalities and TV personalities,” Gary Marx, a former executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said of televangelists. "If he's going to build a bridge into the faith-based community that's really the best way for him to start. It's not going to be with the high-minded Presbyterians and Episcopalians."