After delivering a standout prayer during President Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church in Detroit, Michigan, has sparked a heated debate about his style and sincerity.
Sewell, who welcomed Trump at his church last June for a roundtable while the former president was on the campaign trail, was one of four religious leaders selected to deliver a benediction during the inauguration.
As he delivered an animated prayer, during which he thanked God for miraculously saving Trump from assassination attempts, the criticisms came quickly.
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In an apparent dig at Sewell’s delivery, former NFL player and outspoken Christian Benjamin Watson called the 180 Church pastor “a complete disgrace.”
“He should be ashamed of himself. What an embarrassment,” Watson wrote in a post on X.
When activist missionary worship leader Sean Feucht replied that he thought Sewell’s prayer was “brilliant and anointed,” Watson shot back, “Make sure you buy some of his crypto too if you really believe that.”
Watson was referring to Sewell’s promotion on X of a volatile meme coin bearing his name called $Lorenzo shortly after his prayer for the president.
“The crypto community was kind enough to send me $Lorenzo, so I have permanently locked my tokens into a Liquidity Pool, so that I will never sell on the community but rather just earn fees as our token continues to flourish! Amazing day, all the Glory to God!” Sewell tweeted.
Sewell encouraged followers to purchase the coin to “help us do what we need to do in the ministry.”
“I need you to do me a favor to go and get that coin for us to accomplish the vision that God has called us to do on earth,” Sewell said. “I give God glory for what He has done. We know that King’s dream can only be fulfilled if we acknowledge that people are living in a nightmare.”
Other critics, such as Tennessean Democrat Christopher Hale, who worked on the Obama-Biden campaign and unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Congress in 2020, accused Sewell of robbing the poor through the meme coin.
“Stealing from the poor is an affront to the gospel,” Hale wrote in a comment on Sewell’s Monday video.
Some Christians and Trump supporters who supported Sewell’s prayer, like Angie M, expressed disappointment over the meme coin.
“I enjoyed your prayer at the inauguration more than I can express. But somehow … I don’t think Jesus would approve of this. You know … he turned over the tables of money changers. This needs to change in our churches. More helping others not making money. Time to reverse the direction,” she wrote on X.
Meme coins, according to America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, “are a type of cryptocurrency that are often inspired by internet memes, characters, or trends. They are typically supported by enthusiastic online communities and are generally intended to be light-hearted and fun.”
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are examples of meme coins, which are not often bought for their usability. They can be considered “risky and volatile trading assets” or just a joke. Traders have shown interest in meme coins, however, because it is possible to gain high returns from them.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have also recently launched their own meme coins, The Associated Press reports, but critics of this move say it looks like a cash grab that could undermine efforts to legitimize cryptocurrency.
“I really was kind of bummed out when I saw it,” Tom Schmidt, a partner at a crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly, told the news agency. “It just felt very grifty and cheap.”
Trump launched his meme coin known as $TRUMP last Friday for nearly $6.50 per token. The meme coin price hit a high of $73 on Sunday before falling to $45 as of Tuesday. The meme coin is now worth billions, according to Quartz.
The sale of Trump meme coins was organized by CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, according to the AP. The website selling the Trump meme coin states that they are meant as expressions of support and not an investment opportunity.
Some 200 million Trump meme coins are reportedly available, but some 1 billion coins are expected to be issued over the next three years.
Amid concerns raised by Sewell’s critics, conservative Christian preacher Rev. Damien Jones, the author of Black Voters Red Wave: Decoding the Rise of Donald Trump’s Black Support, was critical of the negativity directed at Sewell.
“He is a husband and father of 3. While in high school, his father went to prison and his younger brother was killed. As a result, Lorenzo became heavily involved in drugs, drug dealing & gang life, ultimately becoming a gang leader. A few years later he gave his life to Christ and made a 180 in his life,” Jones tweeted.
“He is now one of the most influential voices in his community. I know folks want to have something negative to say about the brother or criticize his style of prayer, but I think we ought to give God praise for how God has transformed Pastor Lorenzo’s life into something special.”
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