Christianity Today's editorial: Much ado about nothing?

NEW YORK — A surprising editorial from the evangelical magazine Christianity Today on Thursday called for President Donald Trump’s removal from office. Reactions have ranged from shock to shrugs, including disagreement about how surprising the piece was. 

“Honestly my mouth dropped open when this hit the internet: Christianity Today, an influential evangelical magazine, says President Trump should be ‘removed from office,’” tweeted Sarah Pulliam Bailey, a Washington Post religion reporter who used to work at the magazine.

Many observers noted that the magazine was founded by the late pastor Billy Graham, whose son Franklin Graham is among Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters.

Graham wrote on Twitter that the editorial compelled him to reveal that his father, who died in 2018, had voted for Trump: “My father knew @realDonaldTrump, believed in him & voted for him. He believed Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.”

Graham’s niece, Jerushah Duford, an evangelical author who has been critical of Trump, disagreed.

Trump enjoyed plenty of evangelical support in the 2016 election and continues to do so heading into the 2020 elections.

Ralph Reed, who founded the conservative Christian Freedom Coalition, said the magazine was “completely out of touch with evangelicals” on the issue of impeachment.

The editorial’s author, Christianity Today’s soon-to-retire editor in chief Mark Galli, implored religious Christians who voted for Trump to reevaluate their political bargain.

“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.”

Carl R. Trueman, a professor of biblical and religious studies, published a blog post on Friday criticizing Galli for “accusing every Trump voter of heinous sin, however reluctant or conflicted he may be.”

Trueman described the sentiments expressed by Galli as reflections of something larger. “Evangelical elites are clearly as out of touch with the populist evangelical base as is the case in society in general,” Trueman wrote. “And lambasting populist evangelicals as hypocrites or dimwits will simply perpetuate the divide.”

The magazine’s editorial director, Ted Olsen, tweeted an appeal for prayers on Friday morning after reading letters from angry readers. “For different reasons so many of these letters make me want to vomit,” he wrote. “But the Spirit is prompting ‘pray instead.’ So I am. It’d be awesome if you’d join me.”

Some commentary questioned how the issue was being framed by media outlets. Kendall Harmon, an Anglican minister in South Carolina, took to Twitter to lament the pigeonholing of a movement as diverse as evangelical Christianity:

Trump’s Christian supporters on social media were largely unmoved. Many balked at the suggestion that Christianity Today spoke for them or was persuasive in its argument.

For many, like Liberty University president and staunch Trump defender Jarry Falwell Jr., the editorial simply revealed the magazine as having a liberal ideology that is out of step with the vast majority of its movement in the U.S.

In an interview with The Atlantic’s Emma Green, Galli said he knew his message wouldn’t land with evangelicals on the far right. “They don’t care what we think,” he said. “They think we’ve been co-opted by liberalism. So I understand that we do not represent the entire movement.”

Green wrote in the article that his piece “in no way” signals a mass defection of evangelicals from Trump or Republicans, but can’t be discounted as irrelevant. “What’s significant about Galli’s statement is how directly he makes the case that his fellow Christians have a responsibility to call out Trump’s immoral behavior,” she wrote.

As the Post’s Bailey continued covering the fallout on Friday, she mused on Twitter that some of the magazine’s critics seemed to care a bit more than they were copping to.

News, North America, Politics, ReligionMicah DanneyChristianity Today, Donald Trump, President Trump, Franklin Graham, Mark Galli, Micah Danney, secondary feature, Secondary feature, Secondary Feature, Christianity, evangelicals, Trump, election 2020Comment