Evangelical editor earns Trump’s ire
US President Donald Trump has blasted a prominent Christian magazine after it published an editorial arguing that he should be removed from office because of his ‘‘blackened moral record’’.
Trump tweeted that Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine founded by the late Rev Billy Graham, ‘‘would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President’’.
Some of his strongest evangelical supporters, including Graham’s son, rallied to his side. Their pushback underscored Trump’s hold on the evangelical voting bloc that helped to propel him into office.
The Rev Franklin Graham, who now leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and prayed at Trump’s inauguration, tweeted that his father would be ‘‘disappointed’’ in the magazine. He said his father, who died last year after counselling several presidents, voted for Trump.
Christianity Today ‘‘represents what I would call the leftist elite within the evangelical community. They certainly don’t represent the Bible-believing segment,’’ Graham said.
He wrote on Facebook: ‘‘Is President Trump guilty of sin? Of course he is, as were all past presidents and as each one of us are, including myself.’’
In the editorial, editor-in-chief Mark Galli wrote that Democrats ‘‘have had it out for’’ Trump since he took office, but that the facts were ‘‘unambiguous’’ when it came to the acts that led to the president’s impeachment this week by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Trump ‘‘attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents’’, Galli wrote. ‘‘That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.’’
Trump is deeply popular among white evangelical Protestants despite his personal history, which includes multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, deeply divisive policies and profanity-laced comments.
At the heart of that support is what they view as the president’s significant record of achievement on their highest priorities, such as his installation of conservative federal judges, and his support for anti-abortion policies.
Galli said Trump’s characterisation of the magazine as far left was ‘‘far from accurate’’, but: ‘‘I don’t have any imagination that my editorial is going to shift [his supporters’] views on this matter.’’