Donald Trump lashed out at a prominent evangelical Christian magazine’s publishers on Friday and praised the son of its legendary evangelical founder Billy Graham for saying his father voted for the president before his death.
Trump said Christianity Today, founded in 1956, has become a ‘far left’ periodical. The magazine’s top editor wrote in an editorial published Thursday that the president should be removed from office because he has ‘dumbed down the idea of morality.’
‘Thank you to Franklin Graham for stating that his father, the late great Billy Graham, voted for me in the 2016 Election. I know how pleased you are with the work we have all done together!’
Billy Graham, the famed revival preacher, died in 2018. Franklin Graham disclosed his father’s voting preference in a Facebook post on Friday.
Trump noted that Christianity Today is no longer affiliated with the Graham ministries. He also claimed he has been a better partner for Bible-believing Christians—and predicted tough times for the born-again if a Democrat beats him in 2020.
He suggested the magazine’s editors are ‘looking for Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or those of the socialist/communist bent, to guard their religion. How about Sleepy Joe?’
‘The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!’ he claimed.
Donald Trump took aim at a prominent evangelical Christian magazine, dismissing it as a ‘far left’ organ after its chief editor wrote that the president is a morally stained leader who should be removed from office
The president had claimed hours earlier that they ‘would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President.’
‘No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close. You’ll not get anything from those Dems on stage,’ he huffed in a two-tweet run-on.
He closed by pledging ‘I won’t be reading ET again!’—despite the magazine’s initials being ‘CT.’
Rev. Billy Graham was noted for counseling past presidents. His son wrote on Facebook that his 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.’
‘For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable,’ the younger Graham added, cataloging some of Trump’s policy achievements.
Trump said in a pair of tweets that Christians should recognize he’s more in tune with their priorities than his Democratic challengers
Rev. Franklin Graham, whose father Billy Graham founded Christianity Today, fired back at the magazine’s anti-Trump editorial by defending the president as a staunch pro-lifer; he also said his father voted for Trump
‘The list of accomplishments is long, but for me as a Christian, the fact that he is the most pro-life president in modern history is extremely important—and Christianity Today wants us to ignore that, to say it doesn’t count?’ he asked.
Pictured: Christianity Today magazine cover for the December 2019 issue
The shock editorial came one day after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against Trump.
Editor-in-chief Mark Galli aimed his statement at evangelical Christians who continue to support Trump ‘in spite of his blackened moral record.’
Galli acknowledged Democrats have led a years-long crusade against the president.
But ‘[t]he 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,’ he wrote.
‘That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.’
‘We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath, ‘the editorial read. ‘The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see.’
Galli claimed Trump’s own habits have slid the nation toward immorality: ‘He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud.’
Mark Galli (pictured) wrote an editorial in Christianity Today that called for Trump’s removal from office based on the finding of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry
Billy Graham (pictured) was an ordained Southern Baptist minister and considered one of the most influential evangelical figures in modern history
Rev. Franklin Graham slammed the ‘Christianity Today’ editorial and said his famous father, who founded the magazine, voted for Trump
‘His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused,’ he continued.
Galli wrote that Christianity Today and many evangelicals took a critical position against former President Bill Clinton as a president who was ‘morally unable to lead’ in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
‘Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president,’ he claims.
Christianity Today’s pushback is among the most public Trump condemnations from Christian media since the 2016 campaign.
Trump wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi (center) before the House impeachment vote, saying she suffered from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’
Senior Legal Advisor for Trump, Jenna Ellis, blasted Christianity Today’s editorial as ‘shameful and constitutionally ignorant’
The Pew Research Center reports that 77 percent of white evangelical Protestants approve of the president’s job performance. Yet his presidency has caused a division among some worshipers.
Many have praised Trump for his Supreme Court choices, which could lead to anti-abortion rulings and other conservative reconfigurations of American society.
Senior Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis called out Christianity Today on Twitter as ‘shameful and constitutionally ignorant.’
‘Pious “Never Trumpers” who feel morally justified about this #impeachmentcircus are as morally reprehensible as Democrats. They too are basing their opinion not on the Constitution or the facts, but in a self-serving desire to be proven right about President Trump. WRONG,’ she wrote.
Ellis: ‘They too are basing their opinion not on the Constitution or the facts, but in a self-serving desire to be proven right about President Trump. WRONG’
Ellis maintained that many evangelicals still support Trump as president and ‘we should not let politics cloud our judgment of clear constitutional bounds’
Ellis insisted that evangelicals are still in Trump’s corner.
‘Many evangelicals support [President Donald Trump]. But regardless of whether or not one supports him, we should not let politics cloud our judgment of clear constitutional bounds. This impeachment is not based in law or fact, but in political partisanship & an attempt to overthrow govt,’ she wrote.
The Washington Examiner later ran an opinion column in which Ellis claimed the editorial was ‘devoid of any pretense of understanding the Constitution.’
‘Galli is simply asserting a constitutional violation where there is none…It’s just a bald assertion he thinks evangelical Christians should accept because in his version of the facts,’ she wrote.
Ellis doubled down on her tweets and said Christianity Today is an outlier among Christian believers.
‘Christianity Today does not, in this instance, speak for most of us. Trump, for instance, is pro-life, appoints conservative judges, values liberty and freedom and self-governance, and acknowledges that our rights come from God our Creator, among many other values and virtues of our American tradition,’ she wrote.
‘The publication does not speak for most evangelical Christians. It’s time for them to step up and do better.’