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Christianity Today has been rebuked by nearly 200 evangelical leaders after the magazine called for the removal of President Donald Trump, who has a completely different political viewpoint than the editors.
There’s an old saying that you shouldn’t mix politics and religion. But whether one should mix politics and religion or not, conservative politics are often closely intertwined with religion.
And wading into politics can often turn out to be muddy waters.
Christianity Today is learning the hard way as it insulted a large section of its base. The magazine offended a number of Christians when it criticized them for supporting President Donald Trump – and now evangelicals are loudly speaking out.
In an editorial last week, Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli called for the removal of Donald Trump from office, while simultaneously chastising the Christians who support the president.
A number of well-known evangelical Christians, including Robert Jeffress, pastor of Dallas First Baptist Church, Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University, Dr. James Dobson, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, former head of the Family Research Council Gary Bauer, author Eric Metaxas, and pastors Robert Morris, Tommy Barnett, and Jentezen Franklin, are among the nearly 200 people who signed a letter sent to the editors of Christianity Today.
“We write collectively to express our dissatisfaction with the editorial Christianity Today published on Thursday, December 19, 2019, calling for the removal of our duly elected President, who was put into office at the behest of over sixty million voters,” the opening statement of the letter reads.
“The editorial you published, without any meaningful and immediate regard for dissenting points of view, not only supported the entirely-partisan, legally-dubious, and politically-motivated impeachment but went even further, calling for Donald Trump not to be elected again in 2020 when he certainly survives impeachment,” the letter continued.
“Your editorial offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations. It not only targeted our President; it also targeted those of us who support him, and have supported you,” the signatories wrote.
“Of course, it’s up to your publication to decide whether or not your magazine intends to be a voice of evangelicals like those represented by the signatories below, and it is up to us and those Evangelicals like us to decide if we should subscribe to, advertise in and read your publication online and in print, but historically, we have been your readers,” the signatories in the letter added.
Speaking to MSNBC, Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli doubled down on his comments over removing Trump and alluded that the article boosted subscriptions.
“We have lost subscribers but we’ve had 3 times as many people start to subscribe,” Galli claimed.
Prior to the letter written by evangelicals, the first rebuke of Christianity Today occurred on the same day the article was published and came from the Reverend Franklin Graham, son of Reverend Billy Graham, who originally founded the magazine.
Franklin took Christianity today to task for invoking his father’s name as a way to add credence to the message of the article. Franklin said his father’s viewpoint would have been the opposite of the editorial.
Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, responded by writing on Facebook:
“Christianity Today released an editorial stating that President Trump should be removed from office—and they invoked my father’s name (I suppose to try to bring legitimacy to their statements), so I feel it is important for me to respond.”
“Yes, my father Billy Graham founded Christianity Today; but no, he would not agree with their opinion piece. In fact, he would be very disappointed. I have not previously shared who my father voted for in the past election, but because of this article, I feel it is necessary to share it now.”
“My father knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.”
