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IMPEACHMENT & DONALD TRUMP: Was Christianity Today Right? Part 01



The editorial was blistering: President Trump must be removed from office. It came within a day of the US House Democrats voted to impeach the President. The piece could have been written by one of Trump’s many secular progressive opponents in politics or the media. Instead, it came from Christianity Today (from henceforth called CT), an evangelical publication. Are the evangelicals who voted for Trump in the 2016 Presidential election, now turning against him? Or is CT a minority voice?

In December 2019 Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. This move was totally predictable. Yet, what seemed to be unpredictable was that Christianity Today’s (CT) outgoing editor Mark Galli wrote an editorial calling for the President to remove from office due to his ‘grossly immoral character.’ https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html

Mr. Galli said the facts were ‘unambiguous’ that Mr. Trump violated his oath of office by pressuring the Ukrainian President by withholding promised military aid unless he investigated former US Vice-President and 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden and son Hunter for personal gain - a quid pro quo. Galli sought to prove Trump’s ‘immorality’ by the type of people he hired and his past personal conduct. Even his tweets are ‘immoral.’ Trump’s achievements as President cannot compensate for his flawed character. Claiming this was not a partisan call, but in ‘loyalty to the Creator and Ten Commandments,’ Galli admonished - perhaps lectured - Trump supporting Christians to remember Whom they are serving. Basically, in order to honour God, such Christians need to reject and remove from ‘this immoral President’ from office.

The mainstream media, who normally don’t care about what Christian publications have to say, was ‘over the moon’ because of Galli’s anti-Trump editorial. After all, American evangelical Christians are a significant voting-bloc in the presidential elections. In Trump’s case, he garnered over 80% of the evangelical vote in 2016, more than any other candidate in history. They have continued to support him during his presidency. If Trump loses evangelical support, it would greatly jeopardise his chances of being reelected. Since Christianity Today (CT) is a well-known as an evangelical magazine, if they have turned against Trump, then this is a sign that Americans evangelicals as a whole are doing the same.

Are these assertions from CT correct? Are American evangelicals turning against the President? Does CT represent the voice of the American evangelical community? Was it right in condemning the President?

Our sincere and steadfast goal is to help people to ‘understand the times’ so they would know ‘what to do’ (I Chronicles 12:32). Here are some takeaways.

Who are the evangelicals?: Evangelicalism is a significant and important branch of Christianity. In summary, in the most elementary sense of the word, to be evangelical is to place Scripture as the highest and sole authority of faith and practice. It also means to put evangelism as a top priority. Evangelicals are worldwide but the American version is large and a coveted voting bloc in US elections.

The most famous classic evangelical of our time was the late Evangelist Billy Graham (1918-2018), who immortalised the word: ‘The Bible Says’ (interpretation: ‘God says’); The Bible is God speaking to us. Conservatism in morals and politics was a practical hallmark of evangelicalism, especially in America.

But in an age of postmodern, culture-war ’redefinition,’ evangelicalism today does not necessarily mean what it used to mean. There has been a notable shift to the left, theologically and politically, over the last few years. Millard Erickson’s The Evangelical Left: Encountering Postconservative Evangelical Theology (1997) outlines this trend. A self-proclaimed evangelical author wrote a 300 page best-selling book which only alluded to Scripture only 5 times; in the same book the author gently advocated socially progressive causes.

Evangelicals Against Trump?: Is the CT editorial signalling an evangelical exodus from Donald Trump? Short answer: No. His approval rating is around among evangelicals is 67%, or higher. Nearly 200 high-profile evangelical leaders rose up and condemned the CT editorial in a letter.After all, Galli’s op ed did not just criticise Trump himself but also those Christians who support him. They wrote:

The CT editorial “offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations.[1]’

In response to the charge that pro-Trump supporters are ‘far-right evangelicals,’ the leaders said:

“We are, in fact, not ‘far-right’ evangelicals as characterized by the author," the letter said. "Rather, we are Bible-believing Christians and patriotic Americans who are simply grateful that our president has sought our advice as his administration has advanced policies that protect the unborn, promote religious freedom, reform our criminal justice system, contribute to strong working families through paid family leave, protect the freedom of conscience, prioritize parental rights, and ensure that our foreign policy aligns with our values while making our world safer, including through our support of the State of Israel.”[2]

TO BE CONTINUED

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