Donald Trump’s evangelical advisor Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. and senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland has died Monday at the age of 66.
After his death, the church released a statement saying, “It is with a heavy heart that we notify you that our beloved Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. has transitioned to be with the Lord on November 9, 2020.”
Though Jackson aligned himself with the Republican Party by being conservative, passionately pro-life, and against same-sex marriage, he was also a prison reform advocate.
In 2005 he told Religion News Service, “What I believe is that the whole left and right paradigm that politics has chosen to create for itself is fundamentally incorrect because the Bible has both what we call left and right issues.”
Trump referred to Jackson as “a highly respected gentleman who is a member of our faith and a person that we have tremendous respect for,” when introducing him at a White House gathering back in April.
Jackson attended Trump’s speech at this year’s Republican National Convention. He was also present at the White House garden party in which Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court was announced. The event was deemed a coronavirus superspreader event by infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
While his cause of death is currently unknown, his church says that he was not among the many who tested positive for coronavirus after the announcement event.
Bishop Harry Jackson was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2005, and while he was being treated, he suffered a stroke.
According to RNS, during a 2015 interview with The 700 Club, he said he was “24 hours away from dying.”
Though Hope Christian Church had limited in-person services due to COVID-19, most of the events it held were virtual.
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