Jeffress: Christianity Today is a dying magazine that's diametrically opposed to evangelical Trump supporters
Christianity Today calls for President Trump's removal from office following impeachment; reaction from Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas.
Almost 200 evangelical leaders have written to the president of Christianity Today to condemn an editorial in the magazine calling for President Trump to be removed from office. I have a general policy of not signing group letters, but I join in the criticism of the editorial.
The call for the president’s removal is shortsighted for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump and his administration have championed many issues of great importance to me and my fellow evangelicals.
Is Donald Trump a perfect person? Of course not. None of us is perfect. But the president is the imperfect political street fighter who evangelicals have never had – someone who fights and wins in support of many of our most important values and priorities.
NEARLY 200 EVANGELICAL LEADERS CONDEMNED CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITORIAL ON TRUMP
Mark Galli, the outgoing editor of Christianity Today, wrote in the highly publicized piece Thursday that Trump “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. 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."
In addition, Galli wrote: “That he [Trump] should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
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Unfortunately, Galli leaves out the very important point that no one can fulfill the Ten Commandments. That’s why Jesus died for our sins – He came to Earth due to our inability to fulfill the Ten Commandments on our own.
According to Christianity Today’s standard, every president ever elected should have been impeached because he was not Jesus. And every future president should be impeached as well.
At the dawn of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls. … Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
That quotation applies to our times as well. As the glue that has held our republic together for the past 243 years, our Judeo-Christian values have begun to fray and it sometimes seems like we’re hanging on by sheer threads.
The slide has been steady and steep.
Abortion was made legal in all 50 states in 1973. Religious liberty is under constant threat by the left, with demands that people of faith violate their religious beliefs or be accused of discriminating against others. Marriage has been redefined under President Barack Obama and the new definition supporting same-sex marriages has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
All of these actions have been initiated and passionately pursued by cultural elites who claim to know a “better way.” Unfortunately, this “progressivism” comes at the expense of Christians and others with deeply held religious convictions.
We are now told by secular society and government that our religious beliefs are no longer politically correct and we must abandon them.
Whatever happened to our rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution? The amendment states in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
We have seen our religious liberty being eroded for years. And then along came a populist president named Donald Trump who said enough is enough.
Trump states very bluntly that he doesn’t support the killing of innocent human life. In fact, by most assessments, the Trump administration is the most pro-life of modern times. It’s even more pro-life in its policies and appointees than President Ronald Reagan’s administration.
Additionally, President Trump and his administration are committed to ending religious bigotry and discrimination. He is leading not only in the United States but the globe in advancing religious expression and keeping a ferocious secular anti-religious group in this country from eroding our First Amendment rights.
Yet, Mark Galli and Christianity Today have weighed the scales and determined Trump needs to go.
As a Christian, I would ask Christianity Today this: What is more important? A president who talks smoothly and statesman-like but accelerates the killing of innocent human life? Or perhaps a president who supports the deconstruction of religious freedom and undoes societal norms for the sake of the few to feel included?
I would also ask Christianity Today: Are you interested in disrupting unprecedented economic growth that has allowed for mothers and fathers to better provide for their families?
We are in an age of upside-downism, where right is wrong and wrong is right. Values many of us were taught by the wisdom of ancient texts, in our churches and in our schools are now condemned as bigotry.
When we cast our votes as citizens, we vote not for a pastor or priest. We vote for a fighter who understands the moment we are in and is willing to preserve those basic rights that made America the shining example that it is. Yes, even with the imperfections.
Elections come down to two people in this country. Idealists may not like the system but it’s ours and it has sustained us for over two centuries.
Do we wish President Trump was more circumspect at times? Of course!
Do we wish he was less abrasive in his tweets and statements? Of course!
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However, the unanswered question of the 2016 election is this: Why did so many evangelicals (81 percent) support Trump, with his gruff competitive spirit?
Looking at the data and talking to thousands of people, I believe many conservative Christians realized – perhaps for the first time – that we will not find a man or woman who is committed to strong social policies who is also capable of perfectly fulfilling the Ten Commandments.
In reality, this has always been the case.
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In November we will all be free to vote for President Trump or vote instead for whoever his Democratic opponent turns out to be. That is a normal exercise of our democratic rights.
Impeachment, however, is an extraordinary remedy for a crisis in our democracy – a crisis in which Congress overturns the choice of the American people and removes a duly elected leader. The Christianity Today editorial does not make a convincing case for such drastic action.
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