First Baptist Church Tim Tebow Was 'Pressured' to Cancel Speech 
 
 EXCLUSIVE 
 
 was unjustly pressured by the media to back out of his speaking appearance at the controversialin Dallas ... at least according to the church.A rep for the church tells TMZ, "We are saddened that Mr. Tebow felt pressure to back out of his long-planned commitment from numerous New York and national sports and news media who grossly misrepresented past comments made by our pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress, specifically related to issues of homosexuality and AIDS, as well as Judaism."Rev. Jeffress has been quoted as saying, "70 percent of the gay population" has AIDS -- and has described Judaism, Islam and Mormonism as religions from the "pit of hell."According to the church, Tebow called Dr. Jeffress Wednesday evening to say that for "personal and professional reasons he needed to avoid controversy" ... and would be canceling the appearance which was scheduled for April 28.The church says Tebow told Rev. Jeffress he'd still like to come speak at First Baptist Dallas sometime in the future -- and adds, "Dr. Jeffress shares a message of hope, not hate." ||||| Tim Tebow cancels appearance at church of controversial pastor 
 
 Lisa W. Buser/USA TODAY Sports 
 
 Tim Tebow has canceled a scheduled appearance at the Dallas megachurch of Robert Jeffress, the controversial pastor whose views on other religions and homosexuality have drawn outrage in recent years. 
 
 The New York Jets backup, who likely will be traded or released soon, was scheduled to deliver two sermons on April 28 at the new, $130 million building at First Baptist Dallas Church. The church boasts more than 11,000 congregants. 
 
 On Thursday, he tweeted that he would no longer honor the commitment. He didn't specifically say why he was canceling but alluded to the controversy surrounding his appearance: 
 
 While I was looking forward to sharing a message of hope and Christ's unconditional love with the faithful members of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas in April, due to new information that has been brought to my attention, I have decided to cancel my upcoming appearance. I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring Faith, Hope and Love to all those needing a brighter day. Thank you for all of your love and support. God Bless! 
 
 First Baptist Church responded to Tebow's cancellation in a statement. 
 
 "Mr. Tebow called Dr. Jeffress Wednesday evening saying that for personal and professional reasons he needed to avoid controversy at this time, but would like to come to First Baptist Dallas to speak at a future date," the statement read. 
 
 Jeffress has made news for his critiques of other religions and lifestyles. The pastor said Muslims practice a religion that came from the depths of hell and "promote pedophilia." In his eyes, Mormonism is a cult that should have disqualified Mitt Romney from the 2012 election. 
 
 The pastor's also very much against homosexuality. "[It] is perverse, it represents a degradation of a person's mind," Jeffress has said. 
 
 "As a Christian pastor, Dr. Jeffress takes a biblical approach to moral and social issues, closely following his duty to preach 'the whole counsel of God,' and not just address issues that are politically correct," First Baptist's statement said. 
 
 Tebow's planned visit had drawn intense criticism. Rick Chandler of Off the Bench suggests Tebow's appearance is a tacit endorsement of Jeffress' beliefs. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel said Tebow risked losing his credibility if he appeared at the church. 
 
 To his credit, Tebow seems to have responded to the uproar with a principled stand against Jeffress and he did so without creating more controversy. Some might say his polite cancellation didn't go far enough. He could have bailed on the pastor and issued a strong statement against his beliefs. But that's not Tebow's way. This simple gesture is an effective rebuke of intolerance. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/VysGPg ||||| President Trump, left, greets pastor Robert Jeffress on July 1 during the Celebrate Freedom Rally at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (Oliver Douliery/Pool/European Pressphoto Agency) 
 
 Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, one of President Trump’s evangelical advisers who preached the morning of his inauguration, has released a statement saying the president has the moral authority to “take out” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 “When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil,” Jeffress said. “In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.” 
 
 Jeffress said in a phone interview that he was prompted to make the statement after Trump said that if North Korea’s threats to the United States continue, Pyongyang will be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” 
 
 [Trump threatened ‘fire and fury.’ Here’s why to some that’s perfectly God-like.] 
 
 The biblical passage Romans 13 gives the government authority to deal with evildoers, Jeffress said. “That gives the government … the authority to do whatever, whether it’s assassination, capital punishment or evil punishment to quell the actions of evildoers like Kim Jong Un,” he said. 
 
 He said that many pacifist Christians will cite Romans 12, which says, “Do not repay evil for evil,” but Jeffress says that the passage is referring to Christians, not to the government. 
 
 “A Christian writer asked me, ‘Don’t you want the president to embody the Sermon on the Mount?’ ” he said, referring to Jesus’s sermon. “I said absolutely not.” 
 
 In his sermon on the morning of Trump’s inauguration in January, Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, compared Trump to the story of the biblical leader Nehemiah, who helped rebuild the city of Jerusalem. 
 
 The first step of rebuilding the nation, Jeffress said, was the building of a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens. “You see, God is not against building walls,” Jeffress said in his sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington. 
 
 [‘God is not against building walls!’ The sermon Trump heard from Robert Jeffress before his inauguration.] 
 
 Jeffress is no stranger to controversy. He has said in the past that former president Barack Obama paved the way for the Antichrist and drew wide attention for calling Mormonism a cult during the 2012 Republican primaries. Jeffress knows his comments on North Korea could be considered controversial, even among fellow evangelicals. His megachurch in Dallas is a prominent Southern Baptist church, one where evangelist Billy Graham had membership for many years. In 2016, the church reported an average weekly attendance of about 3,700. 
 
 “Some Christians, perhaps younger Christians, have to think this through,” Jeffress said. “It’s antithetical to some of the mushy rhetoric you hear from some circles today. Frankly, it’s because they are not well taught in the scriptures.” 
 
 Over the past two years, Jeffress said, Trump has been “very measured, very thoughtful in every response.” 
 
 “People instinctively know that this president is not going to draw an imaginary red line and walk around it like President Obama did,” he said. 
 
 Attitudes about North Korea among evangelicals are unclear, he said. 
 
 An overwhelming number of white, evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, 81-16 percent, according to exit poll results. Politics anchor Libby Casey talks to religion reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey about how Trump appealed to this group and what they expect from him in office. (The Washington Post) 
 
 “I think many evangelicals, like most Americans, really don’t pay attention to global affairs,” Jeffress said. “I believe we’re all going to be forced to soon if North Korea isn’t dealt with decisively.” 
 
 Jeffress is unusual for an evangelical pastor because most pastors do not speak about specific foreign policy issues from the pulpit, except sometimes about Israel, said Amy Black, a political-science professor at Wheaton College, an evangelical institution in Illinois. 
 
 Theologians and church leaders have debated the interpretation of Romans 13 for millennia, Black said. Most mainstream interpretations of the passage, she said, would suggest that God works through governmental leaders, but ultimate authority comes from God. Debate broke out among Christians in Germany during World War II over how to interpret this passage; some Christians believed they should follow the government while others set up a resistance movement. 
 
 “If anything, Romans 13 creates a conundrum, because it could be interpreted that Kim Jong Un has authority to govern,” she said. 
 
 Jeffress last met with Trump in July when a group of pastors laid hands on the president in the Oval Office. He said now that health care is off the table, evangelicals are hoping for tax reform, though he didn’t have any specifics in mind. 
 
 The access Jeffress has to the White House, Black said, may explain why many evangelicals have been so attracted to Trump. 
 
 “Some of the approval of Trump is less about the specific person and even specific policy, but it’s about someone who is listening to us,” she said. “Jeffress is a piece of that story of having access.” 
 
 Black says that Jeffress represents an “old guard” of evangelicals, closely aligned to leaders like popular radio personality and psychologist James Dobson and Pat Robertson, who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network. Many evangelicals now look to leadership from pastors like Rick Warren in California or Tim Keller in New York City, though Warren and Keller do not speak about politics very often. 
 
 “We’re in a weird vacuum; we’re past the Jim Dobson and Pat Robertson era, but it’s not 100 percent clear who will fill their place,” Black said. 
 
 Jeffress, who was an early supporter of Trump, has said that after sharing Wendy’s cheeseburgers in Iowa, he believed Trump would be the next president and that it would be because God placed him there. In July, his church choir and orchestra performed a song called “Make America Great Again” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C., where Trump was in attendance. 
 
 This story has been updated to provide further comments from Amy Black, a political-science professor at Wheaton College.
– Up until last night, Tim Tebow was scheduled to appear at Pastor Robert Jeffress' Dallas megachurch in April, but he announced today that he canceled the appearance after "new information" was brought to his attention. Jeffress is a controversial figure who has called Mormonism a "cult," gays "perverse," and Islam a religion that "promote[s] pedophilia," USA Today reports. Tebow's statement doesn't mention anything about rescheduling, but a rep for First Baptist Church says that when the football star called to cancel last night, he said he wanted to "speak at a future date." Tebow had been criticized for the planned visit, at which he was to deliver two sermons. A rep for the church tells TMZ that Tebow backed out because of "pressure ... from numerous New York and national sports and news media who grossly misrepresented past comments made by our pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress, specifically related to issues of homosexuality and AIDS, as well as Judaism." The rep adds that Tebow told Jeffress he "needed to avoid controversy."