Pastor Mark Burns, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and a Republican congressional candidate in South Carolina, said that the separation of church and state should come to an end in the U.S.
He made the remarks as he spoke at the Trump-headlined American Freedom Tour at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday. The right-wing evangelical Christian televangelist spoke in the morning, along with a number of other pro-Trump conservatives, before the former president took the stage in the afternoon.
"Trump won!" Burns yelled, leading the crowd to chant the slogan, according to a video shared to social media. This was an apparent reference to false claims that President Joe Biden only defeated Trump in the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud.
"We need to replace God at the center of American politics. The separation between church and state was not designed to keep the church out of the government, it was designed to keep the government out of the church," Burns said, continuing his remarks, the Miami Herald first reported.
https://www.newsweek.com/pro-trump-pastor-rails-against-church-being-kept-out-government-1689771