You might have heard that the outgoing editor of the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today (founded long ago by American Evangelical saint Billy Graham) penned an editorial in support of removing Donald Trump from office. Looking back at the magazine's response to the House of Representatives' impeachment of Bill Clinton, Mark Galli found words that perfectly describe the present president:
In consistency with that time but also in consistent commitment to the values there stated, Galli argues:
The response to this act of witness was swift and predictable. The unspeakable one condemned it, and so did his coterie of Evangelical supporters. The noxious Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, assured that his late father "believed in Donald Trump" from beyond the grave.
The hacks don't interest me. But you get got a sense of more thoughtful responses in the twitter responses to Christianity Today's managing editor, Ted Olson, which a colleague directed me to. Though someone along the way warns of Russian bots, I feel that in most of them I'm finally hearing the voices of real people thinking theologically. Here are a few. (I've left out those who identify as not Evangelical.)
Some are grateful:
Thank you for (finally) writing the piece that needed to be written. It took too long but we are grateful nonetheless. This political situation is not just dividing the nation but families and those of us that cannot support Trump's behavior needed the church to back us up.
This SHOULD be a wake up call that doesn’t just live on Twitter & isn’t just prayed about but is PREACHED about. People have substituted Trump for Jesus. Talk about his past, his crimes, his meanness in the open!! Amoral. Develop SS lessons on this bad man in power. Take action.
Thank you for saying what so many of us have been thinking. I am terrified by the “Christians” who are idolizing and equating Trump to Jesus. Your courage is inspiring.
When I watched people who I had used as lifetime examples of true Christians follow this immoral man, my heart broke.
My prayers and support are with Christianity Today and all of my fellow Evangelicals who have had the courage to speak out against the Trumpist warping of our faith. "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13
Praying for you and the entire CT team, lifting you as great servants of Jesus and his teachings and asking that he protect you from those not aligned with Him and that He continues to be present with you. I hope you enjoy this great week of waiting for our Lord to come.
But many are scornful:
The “bent and broken character” you allege against our nation’s leader is for God (who chooses them) to judge, just as He will those who mock & ridicule Trump & his Christian supporters who fight for the unborn.
For years biblical Christians have watched churches and Christian universities walk away from biblical truths. I don’t remember seeing CT or these names out there now speaking out against it. But now suddenly everything is Trump’s fault. Suddenly being mean is worse than abortion, the wrecking of God’s order in sexuality and identity, persecution of Christians, sacrificing the safety and respect of women and girls in the privacy of bathrooms and shower rooms, and abandoning Israel. Trump hurts your feelings and fights for America.
"Character counts" unless it's a Dem, right? You use Christ as a weapon and shield, but not the way He intended. It's taking His name in vain. I hope you enjoy your backpats from the World for they are your reward.
Ted, you went to far. Politics is messy, and candidates like pastors are far from perfect. CT will never completely recover from "Opinion" news vs so many quality articles it has produced. I gain great insight from so much of your mag but this rests squarely on your shoulders.
I've never been more in for Jesus or more upset with Democrat Christians who think they are righteous for voting for Obama. The Truth is Obama nearly took our country over the cliff & Trump is here to change that direction. Jesus is leading us. We follow him. Thk Jesus 4 Trump!!!
Those who accuse others of being morally insufficient should have their body examined to see if they have the mark of the beast themselves. Pray for yourself and don't concern yourself with praying for me, I'm already in good hands.
The most interesting are nuanced:
Trump doesn’t always handle things the right way but he supports Christians and promotes life. We believers are imperfect! I love our President and we as Christians are tp pray and support hom. I did the same for Obama.
My honest question that no one seems to answer is what are we supposed to do as Christian's? Not vote? Stay home? The choices for president have been deplorable lately. I haven't been able to tell the difference in Christian's and non Christian's in the hatred for this president
Not sure I agree with the conclusion of your editorial but I do recognize (and have struggled with) the dilemma this president puts Christians in. Ultimately, God will decide what happens here. Your voice has stated, as you did in 2016, what many of us have felt.
No one is putting their faith and trust in Trump. Our faith and trust is in God only. Trump happens to be the tool that God is using at this time. That’s all it is. Unless, Ted, you deliberately want to muddy the water
Hi Ted. Here's the deal. I'm a Christian who was very troubled by Trump in 2016. I voted independent. Since then I'm still troubled by his immorality but pleased that he has done much to end legal abortion, help the economy, put good people on the judicial bench, so... I'm probably going to vote for him next year. I wish he was a better man. I wish he did more than pay lip service to Jesus and the Gospel. But I also know zero Democrat candidates are any better. This is our lot. I wish Cruz or Rubio had gotten the nomination. They didn't... And if they had, we might have President Hillary Clinton and there's no way you can convince me that she had the superior morality. @CTmagazine was wrong and I'm very offended that they went this route
I think you need to get a historical perspective and see how sovereign God is over human affairs. Remember Cyrus, Constantine, Charlemange & Martin Luthers political protector. God used them all without endorsing all aspects of their personal lifestyle. What would you do with FDR
Let’s get real here Ted & Mark. Scripture graphically illustrates He used some pretty disreputable people to outwork His will. Most of the Bible was written by 3 forgiven murderers. Even Abraham led Sarah to commit adultery with Pharaoh & then there was the Hagar episode
What these last help me understand is how Evangelicals can support Trump. For some it's apparently a gut thing, transactional, thoughtless, culture war reflexive, panicked loss of white "God's own country," Fox- and Breitbart-addled. Abortion and traditional sexual norms are lodestars for many. But for others the support is hard won. While it must in some way be thrilling to feel God at work in your time, seeing in Trump a Cyrus isn't easy and it does anything but gloss over his obvious faults. He wouldn't seem a Cyrus if he were thought a Christian. But he also wouldn't seem a Cyrus if he weren't offering astonishing victories to conservative Christians.
It's the jaw-dropping mismatch between the victories and the vessel that calls forth biblical analogies. And the scale: if the vessel is unsurpassed in its sulliedness, the victories are overwhelming too - victories no earlier president, including the professing Evangelical ones, delivered. None of it makes any sense in ordinary secular terms. The sheer abundance of the gifts this heathen vulgarian has been able to give (two Supreme Court justices in two years?!), snatched from the jaws of what seemed sure culture-war defeat, is mind-blowing. It's the obverse of the vertiginous loss of world that folks on my side have felt and continue feeling. It makes no sense that anyone, let alone this godless monster, should be able to wreak such havoc in so many spheres. It's too much, too cruel. I've felt that yawning mismatch since the day of the election. I can see why it feels biblical from the other side.
But I'm not ready to see some other superhuman agency at work.
Thank you for this and I’m so sorry. It breaks my heart to see people so mislead by this charlatan. If satan were returning to earth, he sure seems like he’d be the red faced, mean, yelling guy turning people away from love.
Trump needs to be revealed as the human Anti-Christ he is. He and his propaganda machine and business interests have even convinced church leaders to overlook the evil and profess he is the chosen one. How? And seemingly so fast?
Trump is the Antichrist. It is as clear and daylight if people have ever read the bible. I mean, he even has his right-hand man marked with 666!
I don't do Antichrist, although I confess that this man's unusual powers have at several points along the way struck me as demonic. But I'd rather not think that way. Perhaps a more modest biblical analogy might be in order, and the sort of argument which might be heard. He's not a Cyrus but a Goliath. Where's our David?
The President's failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on a presumption of trust: trust that the milk your grocer sells you is wholesome and pure; trust that the money you put in your bank can be taken out of the bank; trust that your babysitter, firefighters, clergy, and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for breaking campaign promises, while in office they have a fundamental obligation to uphold our trust in them and to live by the law. ... Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead.
In consistency with that time but also in consistent commitment to the values there stated, Galli argues:
Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.
To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?
We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr. Trump. To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.
The response to this act of witness was swift and predictable. The unspeakable one condemned it, and so did his coterie of Evangelical supporters. The noxious Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, assured that his late father "believed in Donald Trump" from beyond the grave.
The hacks don't interest me. But you get got a sense of more thoughtful responses in the twitter responses to Christianity Today's managing editor, Ted Olson, which a colleague directed me to. Though someone along the way warns of Russian bots, I feel that in most of them I'm finally hearing the voices of real people thinking theologically. Here are a few. (I've left out those who identify as not Evangelical.)
Some are grateful:
Thank you for (finally) writing the piece that needed to be written. It took too long but we are grateful nonetheless. This political situation is not just dividing the nation but families and those of us that cannot support Trump's behavior needed the church to back us up.
When the church abandons it’s prophetic voice in the world we become part of the problem.
I’m very grateful that CT had the courage and integrity to make this stand. The self-proclaimed but not self-evident “Christian evangelical” leaders that so freely & loudly bully and name-call as Trump’s mouthpieces are preventing so many souls from ever finding God.
I’m very grateful that CT had the courage and integrity to make this stand. The self-proclaimed but not self-evident “Christian evangelical” leaders that so freely & loudly bully and name-call as Trump’s mouthpieces are preventing so many souls from ever finding God.
This SHOULD be a wake up call that doesn’t just live on Twitter & isn’t just prayed about but is PREACHED about. People have substituted Trump for Jesus. Talk about his past, his crimes, his meanness in the open!! Amoral. Develop SS lessons on this bad man in power. Take action.
Thank you for saying what so many of us have been thinking. I am terrified by the “Christians” who are idolizing and equating Trump to Jesus. Your courage is inspiring.
When I watched people who I had used as lifetime examples of true Christians follow this immoral man, my heart broke.
My prayers and support are with Christianity Today and all of my fellow Evangelicals who have had the courage to speak out against the Trumpist warping of our faith. "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13
Praying for you and the entire CT team, lifting you as great servants of Jesus and his teachings and asking that he protect you from those not aligned with Him and that He continues to be present with you. I hope you enjoy this great week of waiting for our Lord to come.
But many are scornful:
The “bent and broken character” you allege against our nation’s leader is for God (who chooses them) to judge, just as He will those who mock & ridicule Trump & his Christian supporters who fight for the unborn.
For years biblical Christians have watched churches and Christian universities walk away from biblical truths. I don’t remember seeing CT or these names out there now speaking out against it. But now suddenly everything is Trump’s fault. Suddenly being mean is worse than abortion, the wrecking of God’s order in sexuality and identity, persecution of Christians, sacrificing the safety and respect of women and girls in the privacy of bathrooms and shower rooms, and abandoning Israel. Trump hurts your feelings and fights for America.
"Character counts" unless it's a Dem, right? You use Christ as a weapon and shield, but not the way He intended. It's taking His name in vain. I hope you enjoy your backpats from the World for they are your reward.
Ted, you went to far. Politics is messy, and candidates like pastors are far from perfect. CT will never completely recover from "Opinion" news vs so many quality articles it has produced. I gain great insight from so much of your mag but this rests squarely on your shoulders.
I've never been more in for Jesus or more upset with Democrat Christians who think they are righteous for voting for Obama. The Truth is Obama nearly took our country over the cliff & Trump is here to change that direction. Jesus is leading us. We follow him. Thk Jesus 4 Trump!!!
Those who accuse others of being morally insufficient should have their body examined to see if they have the mark of the beast themselves. Pray for yourself and don't concern yourself with praying for me, I'm already in good hands.
The most interesting are nuanced:
Trump doesn’t always handle things the right way but he supports Christians and promotes life. We believers are imperfect! I love our President and we as Christians are tp pray and support hom. I did the same for Obama.
My honest question that no one seems to answer is what are we supposed to do as Christian's? Not vote? Stay home? The choices for president have been deplorable lately. I haven't been able to tell the difference in Christian's and non Christian's in the hatred for this president
Not sure I agree with the conclusion of your editorial but I do recognize (and have struggled with) the dilemma this president puts Christians in. Ultimately, God will decide what happens here. Your voice has stated, as you did in 2016, what many of us have felt.
No one is putting their faith and trust in Trump. Our faith and trust is in God only. Trump happens to be the tool that God is using at this time. That’s all it is. Unless, Ted, you deliberately want to muddy the water
Hi Ted. Here's the deal. I'm a Christian who was very troubled by Trump in 2016. I voted independent. Since then I'm still troubled by his immorality but pleased that he has done much to end legal abortion, help the economy, put good people on the judicial bench, so... I'm probably going to vote for him next year. I wish he was a better man. I wish he did more than pay lip service to Jesus and the Gospel. But I also know zero Democrat candidates are any better. This is our lot. I wish Cruz or Rubio had gotten the nomination. They didn't... And if they had, we might have President Hillary Clinton and there's no way you can convince me that she had the superior morality. @CTmagazine was wrong and I'm very offended that they went this route
I think you need to get a historical perspective and see how sovereign God is over human affairs. Remember Cyrus, Constantine, Charlemange & Martin Luthers political protector. God used them all without endorsing all aspects of their personal lifestyle. What would you do with FDR
Let’s get real here Ted & Mark. Scripture graphically illustrates He used some pretty disreputable people to outwork His will. Most of the Bible was written by 3 forgiven murderers. Even Abraham led Sarah to commit adultery with Pharaoh & then there was the Hagar episode
What these last help me understand is how Evangelicals can support Trump. For some it's apparently a gut thing, transactional, thoughtless, culture war reflexive, panicked loss of white "God's own country," Fox- and Breitbart-addled. Abortion and traditional sexual norms are lodestars for many. But for others the support is hard won. While it must in some way be thrilling to feel God at work in your time, seeing in Trump a Cyrus isn't easy and it does anything but gloss over his obvious faults. He wouldn't seem a Cyrus if he were thought a Christian. But he also wouldn't seem a Cyrus if he weren't offering astonishing victories to conservative Christians.
It's the jaw-dropping mismatch between the victories and the vessel that calls forth biblical analogies. And the scale: if the vessel is unsurpassed in its sulliedness, the victories are overwhelming too - victories no earlier president, including the professing Evangelical ones, delivered. None of it makes any sense in ordinary secular terms. The sheer abundance of the gifts this heathen vulgarian has been able to give (two Supreme Court justices in two years?!), snatched from the jaws of what seemed sure culture-war defeat, is mind-blowing. It's the obverse of the vertiginous loss of world that folks on my side have felt and continue feeling. It makes no sense that anyone, let alone this godless monster, should be able to wreak such havoc in so many spheres. It's too much, too cruel. I've felt that yawning mismatch since the day of the election. I can see why it feels biblical from the other side.
But I'm not ready to see some other superhuman agency at work.
Thank you for this and I’m so sorry. It breaks my heart to see people so mislead by this charlatan. If satan were returning to earth, he sure seems like he’d be the red faced, mean, yelling guy turning people away from love.
Trump needs to be revealed as the human Anti-Christ he is. He and his propaganda machine and business interests have even convinced church leaders to overlook the evil and profess he is the chosen one. How? And seemingly so fast?
Trump is the Antichrist. It is as clear and daylight if people have ever read the bible. I mean, he even has his right-hand man marked with 666!
I don't do Antichrist, although I confess that this man's unusual powers have at several points along the way struck me as demonic. But I'd rather not think that way. Perhaps a more modest biblical analogy might be in order, and the sort of argument which might be heard. He's not a Cyrus but a Goliath. Where's our David?
