Why Did Michelle Bachman and Other Evangelical Leaders Meet With Saudi Crown Prince?

Leading conservative evangelicals met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday, as questions regarding Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi continue to pop up.

The group’s meeting with the young Saudi leader, which was reported by the Washington Post, was inspired by their “desire to lift up the name of Jesus whenever we are asked and wherever we go,” as well as become the first evangelicals to meet with the crown prince and lobby for Christian minorities in the Middle East.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most important nations in the Middle East, in all of history,” the evangelical group’s spokesman Johnnie Moore said.

“It also has enormous influence on the Islamic theology taught throughout the entire globe. While the Kingdom is restrictive and controversial in various and serious respects, it has under the Crown Prince begun to undergo reform and professed the desire to change in profound ways. Precisely for these reasons, we thought it was wise to accept the invitation we received from the Kingdom, issued more than two months ago, to come as evangelicals to engage in a dialogue.”

Members of the group included former congresswoman Michele Bachmann, National Religious Broadcasters CEO Jerry Johnson, and Christian Broadcasting Network COO Michael Little.

As for the Khashoggi disappearance, it is the belief of many that Saudi agents murdered him during his visit to the Gulf state’s consultant in Turkey, then chopped into small pieces and discreetly transported him out of the building, or even dissolved him inside.

Saudi officials first denied involvement, but they have since changed their stories multiple times. In their first version, they claimed Khashoggi was killed in a fight that was randomly triggered during a peaceful meeting, but their new story points to Turkish intel that shows the incident was planned by Saudi officials.

[image via screengrab]

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