Donald Trump claimed record attendance at his address to Liberty University students. | AP Photo

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Saying other religions are doing the same, Donald Trump called on Christians to “band together” and “unify” at an address to Liberty University students on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Trump delivered the Christian nationalist message as he continues to court evangelicals, a crucial Republican bloc, especially in Iowa, where he and Ted Cruz are neck-and-neck in polls ahead of the Feb. 1 caucuses.

“Christianity, it’s under siege,” said Trump, who at one point bungled a scriptural citation. “We don’t band together. Other religions, frankly, they’re banding together … we have to unify.”

He called Liberty, an evangelical university founded by the late Jerry Falwell in 1971, a model for the nation. “You’ve banded together. You’ve created one of the great universities,” he said. “Our country has to do that around Christianity, so get together, folks.”

Jerry Falwell Jr., the university’s current president, said he was not endorsing the businessman, but he came just shy of doing so, describing Trump in his introductory remarks Monday as the only presidential candidate who “cannot be bought.”

“He is not a puppet on a string like many other candidates who have wealthy donors as their puppet masters,” said Falwell, echoing Trump's latest line of attack against Cruz. “The American public is finally ready to elect a candidate who is not a career politician.”

Falwell said Trump and his adviser Michael Cohen have cultivated a friendship with him since the businessman came to speak here in 2012. At the time of that address, Trump’s advice to students to “get even” with opponents was criticized by some evangelicals as un-Christlike.

But Falwell assured students that the mogul does in fact walk in Christ’s footsteps. He enumerated good works he said Trump has performed and that the media would not want to reveal: saving a basketball tournament in Harlem, paying off the mortgage of a couple who helped him with car troubles, aiding businesses affected by the outsourcing of a Maytag plant.

“Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others, as Jesus taught in the New Testament,” Falwell said.

Nodding to the setting, Trump led off with talk of Christianity and discussion of Middle Eastern geopolitics. “We’re going to protect Christianity,” he said, noting that the Islamic State has been beheading Christians. Trump did not attack Cruz or any of his other rivals by name, as he does repeatedly at his campaign rallies.

Rather than the pounding rock songs that precede Trump on stage at his rallies, orchestral music played throughout an introductory video that juxtaposed television talking heads describing Trump as a crude populist with family photos and video of Trump’s children praising him.

Before running for president, Trump, a longtime casino proprietor who left the first of his three wives for his then-mistress, was not known for talking publicly about his religious life. But 45 percent of evangelicals count a candidates’ faith among the most important factors in determining their vote, compared with just 9 percent of Americans, according to a poll conducted last year. And Trump has been showcasing his Presbyterianism on the campaign trail, bringing his family Bible and a confirmation photo to rallies and interviews.

On Monday, though, he made a faux pas in citing scripture. “Two Corinthians 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame,” said Trump referring to a Bible verse favored on campus that says, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Christians cite that book as “Second Corinthians,” not “Two Corinthians,” as several rival campaigns hastened to point out.

Trump’s word choice prompted some murmurs from the crowd. “Is that the one you like? I think that’s the one you like, because I love it,” he said.

Trump said little about Martin Luther King Jr., whose holiday happened to fall on the same day as the school's first convocation of the semester. Instead, he ambled through a PG-13 version of his usual stump speech, at times asking the crowd whether he could say certain things and claiming record attendance. "We're dedicating the record to the late, great Martin Luther King," he said.

(A spokeswoman for the university said she could not confirm Trump's claim of a record crowd.)
Monday’s appearance sparked controversy in evangelical circles. Miffed students participated in a small protest outside the arena, and Trump critic Russell Moore, head of the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, panned it — and Falwell's introduction — on Twitter.

Inside the arena, most students said they welcomed the chance to hear another national political voice in person. Last year, Cruz announced his presidential run here. Ben Carson, Jeb Bush and even Bernie Sanders also made appearances.

Students said they did not know what to make of Trump’s recent public professions of faith.

Josh Neubauer, a senior, said he was skeptical. “I’ve seen him talk the talk but not walk the walk,” he said. “How can you call yourself a Christian and denigrate other religions?”

Others were more willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. “We all have our flaws, and he’s made mistakes in the past. Maybe he’s trying to make amends,” said Kaitlyn Bolton, a junior. Added her younger sister, Autumn, “I hope he’s not just using it as a ploy to get votes."

The University of Pennsylvania campus auditorium was half-empty when GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina strode onstage, smiling and waving with the same corner-office charisma she had showcased in hundreds of speeches around the world.