Earlier this week, The Christian Post joined the Fellowship of the Pharisees and their betrayal of faith and spreading of hate by attacking Christianity Today editor Mark Galli for his op-ed calling for Trump’s removal from office.
Fresh on the heels of the release of a letter “slamming” Christianity Today and signed by 200 top evangelical leaders — you might call them the “evangelical elite” — The Christian Post editors John Grano and Richard Land authored an editorial criticizing Galli and Christianity Today for their display of so-called “Christian elitism” after Galli pointed out Trump’s “gross immorality and ethical incompetence.”
In their editorial, Grano and Land accused Galli of using words reminiscent of far-left liberal elite democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. No surprise, really, as targeting others in this manner comes straight out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals, which has become the handbook of Trump and his sycophantic followers.
Rule 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.” Cut off the support network ad isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Calling Christians who reject Donald Trump “liberal” has become a classic angle of attack by the real Christians who worship Trump and the GOP. As they see it, God’s a Republican, so rejecting the GOP is rejecting him.
The Christian Post will soon be adding another name to its list of liberals and elitists rejecting Trump, former Politics Editor for The Christian Post, Napp Nazworth. Nazworth announced his resignation from the publication after the release of its pro-Trump editorial attacking Christianity Today.
Announcement: Today, rather abruptly, I was forced to make the difficult choice to leave The Christian Post. They decided to publish an editorial that positions them on Team Trump. I can't be an editor for a publication with that editorial voice. …
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
They've chosen to represent a narrow (and shrinking) slice of Christianity. That might be a good business decision, short term at least. But …
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
… it's bad for Democracy, and bad for the Gospel. It means there will be one more place where readers can go for bias confirmation, but one less place where readers can go to exercise their brains on diversity of thought. {end}
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
In an opinion piece for TheHill.com yesterday, Stephanie Martin explains why evangelicals are wrong to defend Trump in this tiff over The Christianity Today editorial. Pointing to the attacks we’ve witnessed from the evangelical leadership against CT, she exposes their hypocrisy.
“Republican protestants tend to talk about politics and the American public sphere by emphasizing a duty to participate — to vote — but downplaying what happens next because God is in control.
“In the case of Donald Trump, this means that evangelicals claim credit for helping to elect the New York billionaire, but then deny blame for his immoral acts. Put plainly; these Christians see the things they like or imagine God approves of, and pretend nothing else is going on. This pretending is perfectly evident in the letter they wrote to Christianity Today.
“But the time for pretending has passed.
“When American evangelicals forsake responsibility for the consequences of their votes by refusing to look at Donald Trump’s harmful acts, they confuse trust in God with democratic participation.”
Martin’s words perfectly describe the error of evangelical Trumpism.
The incorrect conclusion reached by Grano and Land in their piece shows us everything that’s wrong with the evangelical approach to voting, including the infamous “lesser of two evils” argument we’ve heard so much in the Age of Trump, and how they will betray faith and spread hate to justify compromising their values:
“CT’s op-ed does not represent evangelical Christianity today, yesterday or in the future. After all, a majority of Trump’s evangelical support has been triggered by his opponents’ advocating policies that make him appear to be, at the very least, the lesser of two evils in a binary contest.
“CT’s disdainful, dismissive, elitist posture toward their fellow Christians may well do far more long-term damage to American Christianity and its witness than any current prudential support for President Trump will ever cause.”
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative.
Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS
