In our founding documents, Billy Graham explains that Christianity Today will help evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith. The impeachment of Donald Trump is a significant event in the story of our republic. It requires comment.
The typical CT approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians with different political convictions to make their arguments in the public square, to encourage all to pursue justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition as charitably as possible. We want CT to be a place that welcomes Christians from across the political spectrum, and reminds everyone that politics is not the end and purpose of our being. We take pride in the fact, for instance, that politics does not dominate our homepage.
That said, we do feel it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear—always, as Graham encouraged us, doing so with both conviction and love. We love and pray for our president, as we love and pray for leaders (as well as ordinary citizens) on both sides of the political aisle.
Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.
But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.
The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.
Trump’s evangelical supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy, among other things, as achievements that justify their support of the president. We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.
This concern for the character of our national leader is not new in CT. In 1998, we wrote this:
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.
And this:
Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead.
Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president. 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.
Mark Galli is editor in chief of Christianity Today.
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Dear VT editors,
Christianity Today was founded by Billy Graham 50 years ago and still upholds old school Christian Biblical values as they have broken from GOP Evangelicals and with that said the GOP’s base is mainly Christian and Evangelical as in time America will utterly reject and blame the GOP for catering to these absolute morons.
So, if you are a Republican and reading this and if you love the GOP you must root these idiots out of your party and end the politics of cruelty as Evangelicals are sadists since they absolutely enjoy the sufferings of those that they deem inferior to themselves as ignore my warnings to you about your party at your peril!
Prime example? The proposed rule changes to Social Security disability that tRump is proposing which is a repeat of what Reagan did in 1981 which led to thousands of deaths and untold suffering for many thousands of America’s most vulnerable people. These policies were rescinded due to overwhelming public disgust as I see Republican history repeating itself…..
You have been warned as your time has come since the GOP has run its course toadying up to the sick sadistic right wing Evangelical morons.
Both the GOP and the evangelical church are fully controlled by Likud. Both have financed the illegal Israeli settlements over the years and now with this guy the expansion projects and genocide are on steroids. And his base sells him as the one who hasn’t started a war.
In the ’90’s the biggest FBI money laundering investigation ever at the time, was held involving an investment arm of the LDS church called Bonneville Pacific. The details and findings were for the most part kept out of public view. I believe there was a 60 Minutes segment questioning some of the LDS’s investments and many changes occurred with church owned business’. The current whistleblower and his brother are currently being smeared here in SLC and the 100 billion is being written off as no big deal. It would only pay each member 7,000 dollar as some would claim it isn’t even a sufficient sum for a “7 year” emergency fund. You would have to be well versed in church shite to understand that one. In the tax loophole rule book there apparently is no defined timeline as to when the church or 501c has to distribute funds so ‘nothing to see here’.
If he really (Donald Trump) is a Christian as he states, that editorial has got to hurt!
I really do not like the man, but should The President be put on suicide watch?
Is this a see something, say something moment that the NSA and Homeland security warns us about?
“The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration.”
When he was already accused of sexual assault, of bribing a porn star to shut her mouth, of adultery, of portraying years of bad business practice and bankruptcies as experience, of equating Mexicans and Muslims to subhumans, of shredding a nuclear deal that took so much time and effort in order to get a war going, of promising to tax the poor and let the rich not pay a dime, of having multiple conflicts of interests between his business dealing and the public office, the evangelical church didn’t care one iota and instead gave them all the support that one “messiah” could get to become the president of the United States. The dumbing down of the idea of morality was already accomplished before he became president by the evangelical Christians who had their enjoyment during the eight years of another born again president who declared war on innocent people of the Middle East.
No, no matter what the church says at this point, they’ve already done the irreversible damage that has left the world with so many open wounds that their “reserved judgment” is only adding salt to them.
The Russian connection was even stronger with the evangelical church. Read “The Russian connection: When Franklin Graham met Putin.”
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