(CNN) A New York City megachurch pastor became the first religious leader to step down from President Trump's evangelical advisory board.

A.R. Bernard announced on Twitter Friday that "it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration."

My statement regarding my resignation from the President's Evangelical Advisory Board. pic.twitter.com/Ocae6SQxjZ — A. R. Bernard (@ARBernard) August 18, 2017

"When he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I had come to the point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away," Bernard told CNN's Don Lemon on "CNN Tonight."

"When you vacillate like that, it means that there's not a set of core values that you have determined to guide your thinking, your decision-making. Instead, it demonstrates that you are being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I've got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership."

Read More</s>One of President Donald Trump’s most steadfast constituencies has been standing by him amid his defense of a white nationalist rally in Virginia, even as business leaders, artists and Republicans turn away. Only one of Trump’s evangelical advisers has quit the role, while presidential boards in other fields saw multiple defections before being dismantled. The Rev. A.R. Bernard, pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn and one of the most influential clergymen in New York, announced his decision Friday night, saying “there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.”

Trump’s evangelical advisers have strongly condemned the bigotry behind the Charlottesville march by white nationalists and neo-Nazis over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But regarding Trump, they have offered either praise for his response or gentle critiques couched within complaints about how he has been treated by his critics and the media. Like other presidents before him, Trump has turned to religious leaders for counsel and support. His faith advisers include pastors who had worked with his campaign, and now pray with him and consult with his staff on issues ranging from religious liberty in the U.S. to the persecution of Christian minority populations in the Middle East. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and an early backer of Trump, said the president had made a “bold truthful statement” about the demonstration. Falwell said the president’s remarks were a clear repudiation of white supremacists, Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Johnnie Moore, a public relations executive, faith adviser to the president and a spokesman for several other such evangelicals advisers, said, “The president is certainly guilty of being insensitive,” but that the media and critics of the president have ignored his other comments rejecting white supremacy and anti-Semitism. Jack Graham, a Texas pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, signaled he planned to stay on as an adviser. The role, Graham tweeted, “is to prayerfully advise & advance Christian issues to the Administration.” After the march last Saturday, in which neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and others scuffled with counter-protesters, a car driven by an alleged white nationalist plowed into a group of people, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others.

The president initially responded by blaming “many sides” for the violence. On Monday, he read a prepared statement denouncing bigotry. But in a combative news conference Tuesday, he said “there is blame on both sides” and “there were very fine people on both sides.” Later, he doubled down, calling efforts to remove monuments to the Confederacy an attack on America’s “history and culture.” Some of his Republican allies started to more openly complain. Trump dissolved two business councils this week after members began quitting, damaging his central campaign promise to be a business-savvy chief executive in the Oval Office. On Friday, the entire membership of the President’s Committee On the Arts and Humanities resigned. As the backlash built, evangelical author Michael Brown, who attended a recent Washington meeting of Christian leaders and White House aides, urged Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to be a “unifier.” In Brown’s post Thursday on stream.org, he showered the president with praise, calling Trump “tenacious” and “fearless,” and saying, “You will never satisfy the secular media.” But Brown said, “there are times to be a wrecking ball and times to be a statesman. Today, our nation needs you to be a statesman. Will you rise to the occasion?”

Trump won 80 percent of the white evangelical vote and has earned some of his highest approval ratings from the group throughout his tumultuous presidency. Evangelicals have been thrilled by his appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court and by the president’s pledge to strengthen religious liberty protections. Conservative Christians who have long worked with political leaders say they have never before had such access to the White House. At the same time, many of his evangelical advisers have been working to confront racism within their denominations. White evangelical support for Trump, and the response of evangelical leaders amid the fallout from the rally, has widened rifts between black and white Christians. South Carolina pastor Mark Burns, one of Trump’s most vocal Christian defenders, posted a video on the day of the march distancing Trump from the white supremacists who said they were rallying in the president’s name. “David Duke and his Neo-Nazi Hate Groups don’t represent us Americans that elected” Trump, Burns tweeted. He later criticized the media focus on the rally and said they should be looking instead at the murder rate in Chicago.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Most of President Donald Trump's evangelical advisers have stood by him this week following much criticism over his response to violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, even as several CEOs left business advisory councils and members of his Committee on the Arts and Humanities have announced they are leaving the panel.

In a first for his evangelical advisory council, New York City megachurch pastor A.R. Bernard announced Friday that he had stepped down from the unofficial board of evangelical advisers to Trump. Bernard sat at the president's table on May 3, the night before the National Prayer Breakfast when Trump gathered several religious leaders to announce an executive order on religious freedom.

Bernard's Brooklyn-based Christian Cultural Center, which claims 37,000 in membership, has been described by the New York Times as the largest evangelical church in New York City. He said he submitted a formal letter on Tuesday, the same day Trump made controversial remarks about the events that took place in Charlottesville.

During a news conference, while he condemned white supremacists, Trump defended some "fine people" in Charlottesville and asked why the "alt-left" had not been criticized for violence. On Thursday, the president mourned the loss of "beautiful statues and monuments," referring to monuments to Confederate leaders.

Bernard was part of Trump's advisory council during the campaign, but he told the Times last year that he had stepped away from that election role because he felt more like "window dressing" than a genuine adviser. The Times also reported that Bernard is a registered Republican, though he voted twice for Bill Clinton and twice for President Obama.

Bernard has been part of a group of a few dozen leaders who have given advice through the White House's liaison office. Other leaders who have been involved have been mostly a mix of Pentecostal and Southern Baptist pastors, including Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas and Paula White of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida.

Some leaders, including Southern Baptist pastor Jack Graham, Tony Suarez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and televangelist Mark Burns, doubled down in their support of the president.

However, Chicago-area megachurch pastor James MacDonald reminded his followers that he resigned after the Access Hollywood tapes were published during Trump's campaign. MacDonald had called Trump "lecherous and worthless" in a letter to the rest of the council.

Johnnie Moore, a former vice president of Liberty University, said in a text message that the group still plans to extend invitations to Bernard on various issues.

"I am responsible for attempting to give them good advice if I have the opportunity to do so," he said. "I believe it would be immoral not to try and make a difference when and how I can."

Earlier this week, Moore issued a statement saying evangelicals "abhor racism, anti-Semitism, white nationalism and white supremacism."

"I do not know a single evangelical leader who is racist. I do know evangelicals who struggle to build bridges of understanding for various reasons," he said. "I also believe the way that some in the media and in the administration as well as other politicians and also activists ... [who] have handled the Charlottesville incident has at times been unhelpful, too emotional and insensitive."

Several members of Trump's Committee on the Arts and Humanities said in a letter Friday that they were leaving the panel. A rising number of Americans wants Trump to resign a Public Religion Research Institute poll conducted in early August found, but white evangelicals remain most opposed to the idea. Among white evangelicals, 79 percent oppose the calls to impeach Trump compared with half of Americans who say Trump does not deserve to be impeached.

Evangelicals, particularly white conservative ones, have debated their relationship to political power since the 1970s and 1980s, when Religious Right leaders tried to mobilize conservative Christians in politics. While 80 percent of evangelicals voted for Trump, many leaders became fiercely divided over whether to be so vocally supportive of the president.

Leaders are especially split over how to respond to Trump's policies. Many of them see him as a vehicle to enact antiabortion policies and are especially pleased with his pick of Vice President Mike Pence and his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

In a town just an hour southwest of Charlottesville, two evangelical brothers responded very differently from one another. On Sunday, Jonathan Falwell, who leads the megachurch Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., denounced racism from his pulpit. His brother Jerry Falwell Jr., who leads Liberty University, remained silent for several days until he tweeted support for Trump on Wednesday.

The brothers' responses to Charlottesville reflect the larger divide in evangelicalism right now over how to respond to racially and politically charged issues. Several evangelical leaders spoke out against racism from their pulpits on Sunday, but fewer have directed criticism toward Trump specifically.

One of the architects of the Religious Right, Jerry Falwell Sr., helped create Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., and its offshoot, Liberty University, institutions that were handed off to his sons Jerry Falwell Jr., who took the school, and Jonathan Falwell, who took the church. The two brothers seemed split during the election, with Jerry Falwell Jr. becoming one of Trump's earliest evangelical leaders to support him. Trump has spoken at Liberty several times, including this year's commencement ceremony.

Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, defended Trump earlier this week. However, in a later post, he quoted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who sharply condemned the violence by white racists. On Friday, he hinted his support for keeping Confederate monuments.</s>A New York City megachurch pastor, A.R. Bernard became the first religious leader to step down from President Trump’s evangelical advisory board.

He made the announcement on Twitter saying “it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.”

In another interview with CNN, he said ‘when he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I had come to the point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away. When you vacillate like that, it means that there’s not a set of core values that you have determined to guide your thinking, your decision-making. Instead, it demonstrates that you are being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I’ve got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership.”



CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General</s>A.R. Bernard announced on Twitter Friday that "it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration."

"When he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I had come to the point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away," Bernard told CNN's Don Lemon on "CNN Tonight."

"When you vacillate like that, it means that there's not a set of core values that you have determined to guide your thinking, your decision-making. Instead, it demonstrates that you are being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I've got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership."

Lemon cited critics questioning why the Brooklyn pastor did not abandon the President after the revelation of the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape that exposed Trump's lewd conversation about women. "I accepted the fact that, you know, the American public by their vote spoke and put a particular individual in office with all of the flaws, with all of the character issues," Bernard said. "I was not there to judge that. I was there to see if there was an opportunity to effect change." Charlottesville: A monumental week of debate over the nation's identity On Trump blaming violence in Charlottesville on both sides of the conflict -- equating the white supremacists on one side with the "alt-left" on the other side, Bernard said he does not expect much from the President, but calls on his fellow religious leaders to speak out. "I would love to see more of the evangelical leaders who are on the board make strong statements in reaction to it, and that doesn't mean they have to abandon him." Bernard added, "But they should come out and say something of substance." Pastor becomes first to resign from President Trump's evangelical advisory board: "There was a line for me" https://t.co/wOUSt7tl1z — CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) August 19, 2017</s>A New York City megachurch pastor became the first religious leader to step down from President Trump’s evangelical advisory board.

A.R. Bernard announced on Twitter Friday that “it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.”

Many of Trump’s religious advisers have stood by the President following widespread outrage over his response to violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, while members of his Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest on Friday, capping off a dramatic week that included a stream of CEO resignations from two of Trump’s business councils.

“When he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I had come to the point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away,” Bernard told CNN’s Don Lemon on “CNN Tonight.”

“When you vacillate like that, it means that there’s not a set of core values that you have determined to guide your thinking, your decision-making. Instead, it demonstrates that you are being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I’ve got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership.”

Lemon cited critics questioning why the Brooklyn pastor did not abandon the President after the revelation of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that exposed Trump’s lewd conversation about women.

“I accepted the fact that, you know, the American public by their vote spoke and put a particular individual in office with all of the flaws, with all of the character issues,” Bernard said. “I was not there to judge that. I was there to see if there was an opportunity to effect change.”

On Trump blaming violence in Charlottesville on both sides of the conflict — equating the white supremacists on one side with the “alt-left” on the other side, Bernard said he does not expect much from the President, but calls on his fellow religious leaders to speak out.

“I would love to see more of the evangelical leaders who are on the board make strong statements in reaction to it, and that doesn’t mean they have to abandon him.” Bernard added, “But they should come out and say something of substance.”</s>New York City megachurch pastor, Mr. A.R. Bernard, became the first religious leader to step down from President Trump’s evangelical advisory board.

He also announced his resignation via the Twitter.

Bernard announced on Twitter Friday that “it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.”

Many of Trump’s religious advisers have stood by the President following widespread outrage over his response to violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, while members of his Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest on Friday, capping off a dramatic week that included a stream of CEO resignations from two of Trump’s business councils.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General</s>The pastor of a megachurch in Brooklyn, New York publicly announced that he has resigned from President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board early Friday evening.

Rev. A.R. Bernard, the pastor and founder of the Christian Cultural Center, cited “a deepening conflict in values” between himself and the Trump administration for the decision.

“In a social and political climate such as ours, it often takes a gathering of unlikely individuals to shape the future of our nation on issues of faith and inner city initiatives,” Bernard explained. “I was willing to be one of those individuals, and that is why I agreed to serve on the President’s Evangelical Advisory Board.”

Bernard indicated in his announcement that he had already “quietly stepped away” from the panel of evangelical leaders some months back. However, he formalized his departure with an official resignation on Tuesday.

Bernard, 64, was among the religious leaders who sat at Trump’s table at a May 3 event the night before the National Day of Prayer, notes The Washington Post.

On Friday, Bernard appeared on CNN with Don Lemon to discuss his resignation. Bernard told Lemon that he felt that membership on the advisory board afforded him no ability to influence Trump. Bernard also suggested that his position as a black Christian means he must speak out on religious issues in ways which white Christian leaders may not fully understand, according to Patheos, a nondenominational religious website.

Bernard had been part of Trump’s presidential campaign advisory council in 2016. He also left that role because he said he felt like his role was more akin to “window dressing” than to the role of a bona fide adviser.

Bernard is a registered Republican but he has said he voted for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama twice each.

In addition to leading the Christian Cultural Center, Bernard has served as president of the Council of Churches of the City of New York, an organization representing 1.5 million Christians of various denominations.

Bernard appears to be the only member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board to have resigned. The remaining 23 members — televangelists, preachers and others — have either remained silent or publicly endorsed Trump.

This week, some of the remaining 23 members of Trump’s evangelical advisory council tweeted their support for Trump.

Multiple corporate leaders resigned from two business-related panels — a manufacturing advisory panel and a strategic and policy forum — after they were dissatisfied with Trump’s response to a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia at which a Nazi sympathizer allegedly plowed his grey Dodge Challenger through a large group of people on a pedestrian mall, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.

Those panels have been dissolved completely.

All 17 members of a White House arts panel have also resigned in the wake of Trump’s response to the Charlottesville rally.</s>A New York megachurch pastor announced Friday he was resigning from Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board, the first religious adviser to join a wave of defections after the president’s response to violence at a white supremacist rally.

A.R. Bernard, who leads the 37,000 registered members of the Christian Cultural Center, told CNN that “I had to fully disengage myself”.

Bernard, who is black, is so far alone among the 25-member evangelical advisory board in deciding to step down.

“I think that as time progressed, you look for change. You look for consistency. You look for responsibility in leadership. And I didn’t see consistency in a set of core values that influence and shaped his thinking,” Bernard said.

“And when he vacillated over the last week, especially over Charlottesville, I had come to the point where I had to make a decision to more than just step away. I had to fully disengage myself.

“When you vacillate like that… it demonstrates that you are being tossed between opinions of those around you. And I’ve got a problem with that kind of lack of leadership.”

Trump has come under fire from Republicans and Democrats alike after insisting that anti-racism protesters were equally to blame for the deadly outbreak of violence at a white supremacist rally in the university town of Charlottesville last weekend.

Trump’s remarks led many CEOs to resign from White House business advisory panels. In the end Trump simply dissolved two of them altogether.

And on Friday all 16 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced their mass resignation, saying that “ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions.”

Bernard said in his interview with CNN he felt Trump had crossed a line.

“I would love to be Christian first. But America has created an environment where I’m forced to be a black man living in America first, and I’m a Christian. That’s my reality. You understand? And that is not the same reality that many of the white evangelical leaders experience.”

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>One of the ministers serving on President Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board has resigned from the group, citing a "deepening conflict in values" between himself and the administration.

Pastor A.R. Bernard, 64, a former banker and founding pastor of the Christian Cultural Center, a Brooklyn megachurch, released a statement Friday afternoon noting that he was considered himself an "unlikely" individual in the current political and social climate and was willing to serve on this particular council in order "to shape the future of our nation on issues of faith and our inner cities."

"However, it became obvious that there was a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration," he continued.

"I quietly stepped away from the board several months ago, and submitted my formal letter of resignation as of Tuesday, Aug. 15. I am always grateful and honored by any opportunity to serve my country."

CP contacted Bernard on Friday for comment and will update this article with any response we receive.

In a statement shared with The Christian Post from advisory council member and former vice president of communications at Liberty University, Johnnie Moore said that he has the deepest respect for Bernard.

"Sometimes, friends disagree and that doesn't change our commitment to our shared faith and friendship. We have every intention to continue to extend invitations to him to contribute his perspective on issues important to all of us," he said.

Bernard's announcement follows comments made earlier this week by Howard-John Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. A widely circulated Instagram post from Wesley listed the names of advisers on the board and decried the fact that none of them had stepped down from their roles, noting that several business leaders have departed Trump's manufacturing council in light of the president's comments about the racial turmoil and violence in Charlottesville.

"Shame when business is more righteous than church," Wesley wrote, adding the hashtags #staywoke, #loveisgreaterthanhate and #shame.

Earlier this week at a news conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday, President Trump condemned white supremacists, but stirred controversy when he asserted that there were some "fine people" in Charlottesville among those protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. He further inquired why the "alt-left," also known as Antifa, had not been criticized by the media for their part in the violence.

Thus far, the rest of Trump's evangelical advisers have stuck with him, saying they have a moral obligation to continue to serve.

"What we may say to the president privately in calling him out, or expressing our concerns about anything he or a member of his team might do ... people want us to expose the president or to express our disdain for this, that or the other. That's not our responsibility as I view it," said Evangelical Advisory Board member Jack Graham, who pastors the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in an interview with CP Friday afternoon.

Pastor Mark Burns, who leads The Harvest Praise & Worship Center in Easley, South Carolina, stated emphatically on Twitter Friday night: "I will NEVER RESIGN or Abandon @POTUS over #Charlottesville. He needs his spiritual advisers more than ever."
Pastor A.R. Bernard becomes the first religious leader to resign from the president's evangelical advisory board.