According to CNN on Sunday, June 4, 2017, an article was presented that questioned President Donald Trump's religious background and his present church affiliation. The article was titled "God and the Don." The focus was that presidents often turn to faith in times of crisis; however, that doesn't seem to be the case with the 45th President of the United States.

The article, written by MJ Lee, pointed out that two days before the inauguration, Rev. Patrick O'Connor, the senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Queens, and the Rev. Scott Black Johnston, the senior pastor of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, went to Trump Tower to pray with the incoming president before he took the entire country on his shoulders.

Rev. Johnston pointed out that the cross on the steeple of his church could be clearly seen from Trump's office on the 26th floor. Trump responded by talking about the thick bulletproof glass that had been installed on the windows after the election. Then he talked about how well he did in the polls especially with evangelicals. The pastors let Trump know that they were not evangelicals but Protestants that Trump claimed to be as a Presbyterian. Apparently, Trump didn't know his own religious orientation. Rev. Johnston and Rev. O'Connor soon discovered the incoming president didn't put too much emphasis on the church.

No religious ties

Records do not reveal that Trump is a member or has ties to any church.

Since becoming president, the church hasn't been at the top of his list of priorities. He and his family attended Easter service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. He also attended Christmas Eve service there after the election. Other than those holidays and the day after his inauguration, he hasn't been attending any church.

Clumsy remarks about Christianity

The few public comments Trump has made about Christianity have been described as clumsy. For instance, he once said that he is not a Protestant but a Presbyterian. In his 2016 campaign speech at Liberty University, he referred to Second Corinthians 3:17 as Two Corinthians 3:17, something he was criticized for saying.

Religious affiliations

Trump's father was a Lutheran, and his mother was a Presbyterian. As a child, he attended the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens with his mother and was confirmed. It is unknown how much Trump attended his childhood church after that, but he doesn't attend today even after Rev. O'Connor has extended invitations for him to return to the church where he was confirmed as a child.

The few times Trump has attended church, he did participate in Holy Communion. He says that's the only time he has wine along with a cracker. He publicly confessed in an interview that he does not ask God for forgiveness because when he does something wrong, he just tries to make it right on his own without bringing God into the picture.

Trump calls a number of Christian spiritual leaders his friends, including Florida pastor Paula White and Greek Orthodox priest Emmanuel Lemelson. In 2016, he released a list of his religious advisers, including James Dobson, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Ralph Reed.