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Omaha Steve

(99,659 posts)
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 09:32 AM Dec 2019

Evangelical tussling over anti-Trump editorial escalates

Source: AP

By ELANA SCHOR

As the political clamor caused by a top Christian magazine’s call to remove President Donald Trump from office continues to reverberate, more than 100 conservative evangelicals closed ranks further around Trump on Sunday.

In a letter to the president of Christianity Today magazine, the group of evangelicals chided Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli for penning an anti-Trump editorial, published Thursday, that they portrayed as a dig at their characters as well as the president’s.

“Your editorial offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations,” the evangelicals wrote to the magazine’s president, Timothy Dalrymple.

The new offensive from the group of prominent evangelicals, including multiple members of Trump’s evangelical advisory board, signals a lingering awareness by the president’s backers that any meaningful crack in his longtime support from that segment of the Christian community could prove perilous for his reelection hopes. Though no groundswell of new anti-Trump sentiment emerged among evangelicals in the wake of Christianity Today’s editorial, the president fired off scathing tweets Friday accusing the establishment magazine – founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham in 1956 -- of becoming a captive of the left.



FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump listens to a question during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. As the political clamor caused by a top Christian magazine’s call to remove Trump from office continues to reverberate, more than 100 conservative evangelicals closed ranks further around Trump on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File))

Read more: https://apnews.com/e6e6fa63541f19afbcf49efeabd2a2fc

29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Evangelical tussling over anti-Trump editorial escalates (Original Post) Omaha Steve Dec 2019 OP
I can agree with this quote about these "leaders"............ MyOwnPeace Dec 2019 #1
He's managing to break up the Evangelicals... Dennis Donovan Dec 2019 #2
Message auto-removed Name removed Dec 2019 #3
thou shall have no other gods than Dump scarytomcat Dec 2019 #25
Trump Is Their God DanieRains Dec 2019 #4
This Time The Calf Is Orange DanieRains Dec 2019 #5
For the win! CrispyQ Dec 2019 #16
More like an old steer, not calf. Ilsa Dec 2019 #20
they're not evangelicals, they're dittoheads certainot Dec 2019 #6
They follow the safeinOhio Dec 2019 #7
Putting the 'fund' in fundamentalist LuvNewcastle Dec 2019 #11
"they portrayed as a dig at their characters as well as the president's" William Seger Dec 2019 #8
If the sandel fits kacekwl Dec 2019 #9
"Christianity Today" Is Irrelevant to Most Christians MineralMan Dec 2019 #10
But a lot of fundy pastors do read it. yellowcanine Dec 2019 #18
Actually, I think that more mainstream protestant pastors read it MineralMan Dec 2019 #19
They may get a readership bump with this. Kali Dec 2019 #23
I suppose they might, but probably not a long-lasting one. MineralMan Dec 2019 #24
Many of those subscriptions are for church libraries, and many individual recipients Cognitive_Resonance Dec 2019 #29
And we wonder why the church(es) didn't stand up to Hitler. Canoe52 Dec 2019 #12
This is all about cashing in; djacq Dec 2019 #13
Pharisees Today the_sly_pig Dec 2019 #14
Evangelicals gave up their souls Pantagruel Dec 2019 #15
The antichrist of their dreams. saidsimplesimon Dec 2019 #17
And the article didn't hammer him so much on his personal Ilsa Dec 2019 #21
If Trump hadn't tweeted, this would probably have been a 1 day story. yellowcanine Dec 2019 #22
I subscribed for a year and had it sent to my trump loving MIL. 😬 onecaliberal Dec 2019 #26
The Christian right needs a kick in the ass. Initech Dec 2019 #27
Stuck pig squealing DeminPennswoods Dec 2019 #28

MyOwnPeace

(16,927 posts)
1. I can agree with this quote about these "leaders"............
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 09:40 AM
Dec 2019
"The new offensive from the group of prominent evangelicals............"

Yes, indeed, your defense of IQ45 is quite "offensive!"

Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)

scarytomcat

(1,706 posts)
25. thou shall have no other gods than Dump
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 04:21 PM
Dec 2019

come on evangelists you know he is not religious in any way. If this is the best your god could come up with. Time to become a monk, if you guys want to shut the world out.

MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
10. "Christianity Today" Is Irrelevant to Most Christians
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 10:41 AM
Dec 2019

Very few people read it in the first place.

"Christianity Today magazine has a print circulation of approximately 130,000, of which approximately 36,000 is free, and readership of 260,000."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_Today

MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
24. I suppose they might, but probably not a long-lasting one.
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 02:35 PM
Dec 2019

I think the magazine was more influential decades ago before the far right evangelicals took over evangelical Christianity. It was a staple publication in most Protestant churches, and was read by a good percentage of Protestant pastors, both mainstream and evangelical. It's not really a magazine that targets lay church members, although some read it then and read it now, no doubt.

It's goal was always to reach Protestant ministers, and it did that pretty well. It has been a very long time since I paid any attention to church things. I became an atheist in 1965 and stopped bothering with what pastors thought about, pretty much.

Cognitive_Resonance

(1,546 posts)
29. Many of those subscriptions are for church libraries, and many individual recipients
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 06:32 PM
Dec 2019

share their copy (much more so than typical for a magazine). It is influential within a segment of the evangelical protestant world that tends to be less political, but more focused and true to core elements of their Christianity than for instance the radicals who signed the counter letter. The media exposure on the CT editorial ensures it's getting full attention within its sphere of influence. I think this is extremely important toward having a chance to see a rational branch of the evangelical movement break from the crazies.

djacq

(1,634 posts)
13. This is all about cashing in;
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 11:55 AM
Dec 2019

White Evangelicals got what they wanted out of Trump. He, Pence, and Moscow Mitch are packing the courts with conservative judges and blurring the lines of the seperation between church and state.

"the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations,”

It's a big fat insincere joke.

Where were they on any other time that Trump was immoral?


 

Pantagruel

(2,580 posts)
15. Evangelicals gave up their souls
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 11:58 AM
Dec 2019

when after the "grab 'em by the pussy" tapes they chose to support the self-admitted sexual predator anyway. They can't take that back now.

Ilsa

(61,695 posts)
21. And the article didn't hammer him so much on his personal
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 01:19 PM
Dec 2019

failings. They had problems with his anti-Christian policies. The editorial was right to call Christians out for the transactional nature of their support. IOW, they've sold out to the devil.

yellowcanine

(35,699 posts)
22. If Trump hadn't tweeted, this would probably have been a 1 day story.
Mon Dec 23, 2019, 02:18 PM
Dec 2019

Now everybody wants to read the CT editorial and apparently the magazine is getting three new subscriptions for every one that gets cancelled.

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