RICHMOND, Va. -- Donald Trump sat down with some religious leaders of black churches across the country inside the Trump Towers in New York City Monday.
Two pastors from the Richmond area offered different opinions of how the meeting went down.
Dr. Stephen A. Parson Sr., a pastor for Richmond Christian Center, was one of more than 100 black pastors who attended the private meeting with Trump.
"When I met him, I had the feeling that this is a humble man. It's not the image that we see out in public. This guy is a humble guy and has a heart for people," Parson said.
Parsons, who gave the opening prayer at Trump's Richmond rally in October, has now officially endorsed the Republican presidential candidate.
"He was there opening to our advice and wanted to hear from us. He wanted to get counsel from pastors," Parsons said. "He asked for prayer and that's powerful."
However, Orrin Pullings Sr., the pastor of United Nations Church International, had some words of wisdom for Trump.
"What I explained to Mr. Trump is that if your going to be able to win people in the minority community, your going to need to apologize and change the way you are speaking to people, because there are time he communicates that he's demeaning to people,” Pullings said.
Pullings, who has not endorsed Trump, wanted to clear up the fact that a majority of the pastors share his views despite Trump's campaign promoting otherwise.
"For the most part, as far as 100 of us endorsing him, Donald Trump didn't get 100 of us endorsing him yesterday. He probably got somewhere between 40 to 45-percent," Pullings explained.
However, Parson offered a different take.
“This meeting was not about an endorsement of Donald Trump," he said. "It was about getting with and allowing him to talk, address some of the concerns and that's what it was about."
Among several polls regarding voter preferences for minorities back in September, Trump had anywhere between three and 25-percent of the black vote.
