The magazine founded by Billy Graham to “help evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith” has called for the removal of President Donald Trump.
Christianity Today, one of the oldest and most influential magazines aimed at evangelical Christians, notes in their editorial that “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.” But they then state that “we do feel it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear.”
After a brief slam at the Democrats (“they’ve had it out for him from day one”), the editorial drops this bombshell of a graf:
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 editorial goes on to point out that 20 years ago, the magazine called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton (“Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead”), then follows with this:
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.
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