President Trump may not be an evangelical Christian, but they make up some of his strongest supporters. He’d like to keep it that way, too. So he maintains various evangelical leaders as advisers.

However, there’s one whom he should really let go, and that’s Gloria Copeland.

She’s the wife of Kenneth Copeland, who preaches prosperity theology. He also lives out his own prosperity, since he’s one of the richest pastors in America. In case you’re wondering, Copeland is worth a cool $760M, and he and Gloria live in a $6M mansion in Texas.

The Copelands also dabble in the anti-vaccine movement, which turned out to be rather awkward for them a few years ago. In 2013, a Texas measles outbreak originated at the Eagle Mountain International Church, led by none other than the Copelands’ daughter, Terri Pearson. A former staffer there also reported that Eagle Mountain disparaged vaccinations. “There was a belief permeating throughout the church that there is only faith and fear,” said the staffer. “If you were afraid of the illness enough to get vaccinated, it showed a lack of faith that God would protect and heal you.”

Well, old beliefs die hard, I guess. Despite that bad publicity, Gloria Copeland recently told the faithful that they don’t need flu shots, if they have Jesus. She also advises that they can ward off the flu by chanting “I’ll never have the flu. I’ll never have the flu.”

I wonder what Gloria — bless her heart — would say about the millions of victims who died in the 1918 flu pandemic? They didn’t know Jesus enough? Or maybe didn’t pray the right prayers?

Or maybe it’s because the Copelands weren’t around then to help them ward off the flu.

Look, I’m not here to tell you to get a flu shot. I know lots of good people who refuse it, for one reason or another. They’re young and healthy, and don’t think they need it. Or they’re rebelling against what they think Big Pharma or the gubmint is telling them to do. Or they think the shot itself will give them the flu.

Whatever. Their choice. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Personally, I get the flu shot every year. I’m older, and more susceptible to infection. Plus, I’m a speech pathologist, and I work with young kids, and you know the little urchins are not terribly conscious of germ theory.

One year I didn’t get a shot, but I did get the flu. Then it morphed into pneumonia. Frankly, I don’t need that crap again.

And President Trump doesn’t need the crap that Gloria Copeland is shoveling, either. It’s an embarrassment, not only to his administration, but to those of us who are serious about our Christian faith.