Unelected fringe evangelical leader gloats abut influence over Jeff Sessions

While it doesn’t appear that Trump himself attends the meetings, several other cabinet members do, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Agriculture Secretary Sunny Perdue.

The Trump Cabinet Bible Study is run by Ralph Drollinger, head of Capitol Ministries, which sets up conservative bible studies like this at all levels of government. Drollinger openly boasts about his influence on Jeff Sessions:

He’ll go out the same day I teach him something and I’ll see him do it on camera and I just think, ‘Wow, these guys are faithful, available and teachable and they’re at Bible study every week they’re in town.’

If Sessions feels an affinity for Drollinger’s views, it’s not difficult to see why. Drollinger believes that God wants us to have rigidly enforced borders while scaremongering about the threat of what he calls “illegals,” a position that nicely dovetails with Sessions’ vicious anti-immigrant stance. Indeed, Drollinger has bragged about influencing Sessions on that very issue.

The remainder of Drollinger’s religious views are also unorthodox: He thinks the Bible is very much in favor of private property rights and is sure that Christ hates social safety net programs — because only God should create a safety net. He doesn’t believe that women with young children should hold elected office. It surprises no one that he doesn’t believe in global warming, in large part because he believes that God has promised to control the weather and sustain the world’s ecosystem.

And, as far as Bible study groups go, Drollinger condemns anyone who participates in a Bible study that is inclusive of many faiths.

It’s also no real stretch to assume that Drollinger’s entirely predictable anti-LGBTQ views are shared by much of Trump’s cabinet, particularly as we watch Trump himself ban transgender people from serving in the military and the DOJ file a court brief opposing protection for gay and lesbian workers.

Dollinger is not elected. He’s not even appointed. He’s just a man with with a very narrow view of the way the world should be, but with the ear of the people closest to the president — which makes him very dangerous indeed.