How Johnnie Moore, evangelical PR guru, became the face of Gaza's embattled aid effort

Johnnie Moore, the face of the embattled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the new nonprofit commissioned to distribute food aid in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, has long said he believes Christians are called to do great things for God and to help the world become a better place.

So when the U.S. State Department asked him earlier this year to work on a new relief effort for Gaza, according to Moore, the public relations guru and onetime faith adviser to President Donald Trump jumped at the chance.

“I’m a Christian,” Moore, 42, told Religion News Service in an email. “There’s nothing more Christian than feeding people. How could I say no?”

The reasons for anyone to decline are many. In May, as GHF was beginning operations, its executive director Jake Wood, a well-respected aid veteran, stepped down, saying the aid organization’s work could not remain consistent with “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”

Religion & Politics

Photos of the Week: ICE demonstrations and more

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, center right, speaks during a demonstration in support of him at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

In Opinion

And finally, Basketball shoe with Bible verse from NBA's Jonathan Isaac lands at Museum of the Bible

Jonathan Isaac, the 6-foot, 10-inch forward and a 2017 first-round pick for the Orlando Magic, scored a new kind of fame last week: His sneaker — the first product of his Christian apparel brand, Unitus — was unveiled in an exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington.

The shoe, signed by Isaac, refers to a verse from the Bible’s Book of Proverbs, “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

The shoe is known as the Judah 1, an apparent reference to the Lion of Judah, a biblical theme that first appears in the Book of Genesis. Isaac’s sneaker is imprinted with the shape of a lion’s mane, and its sole features a lion and a pair of crossed keys. The verse, the first in Proverbs chapter 28, is one Isaac said he has turned to in times when he has struggled with anxiety.

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