The Rt Rev Paul Bayes, the Bishop of Liverpool, has told BBC's Sunday Programme he thinks Christians, particularly in America, who identify with Trump are "not properly responding to what our Christian faith says they should do".
He said: "I think this guy represents a whole bunch of things, so he represents his country, he's head of state of a big nation with which we've had a warm realtionship in the past and so I do think it's right to welcome him...in a state visit.
"In this case I'm content that we should do that because it gives us a chance to talk to this man."
Bishop Paul continued: "I don't agree with him, I think he's mistaken in many of his policies, and I think that the Christians who identify with him, especially in the United States, are not properly responding to what our Christian faith says they should do. I don't think it's right to build walls, I don't think it's right to demonise and hate people, I don't think it's right to divide and I think this man should be told so - not only by the folks who are in the room with him on this visit but by the folks who will be on the streets outside with the blimp and all the other things."
When asked whether he thought Trump was a Christian, he replied: "He himself says that he's a Christian but Jesus said 'You know people by their fruits' and this is a guy who seems to me to be saying 'walls are good', 'people from other cultures are bad', 'we must not welcome people, we must exclude them', I don't believe these are Christian positions."
When asked to expand on this by presenter William Crawley, he explained: "I think Christians can hold non-Christian positions but they should, if they're listening to their faith, put themselves more and more in line with the Lord Jesus Christ and I hope that's what Trump does and certainly I hope that that's what his evangelical supporters in the United States do."
Bishop Paul said people should exercise their right to protest and ask to be listened to: "We should have the proper freedoms to protest and so I really welcome and honour those who will be out on the streets protesting Donald Trump's visit and protesting the things that he stands for."
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