'Christianity Today': Trump Should Be Removed From Office

[ViolaSebastian]

So this happened. The magazine Christianity Today, started by famed Evangelist Billy Graham, and known as "evangelicalism's flagship magazine," has stated that President Trump should be removed from office.

Quote

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. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html

Edited December 20, 2019 by ViolaSebastian

[JermajestyDuggar]

They won’t listen. The fundies/evangelicals still supporting trump will never stop supporting him. Unless he comes out as atheist or staunchly pro-choice. Which won’t happen. 

[AmazonGrace]

I think he could come out as the Antichrist by now and they'd be, "yeah but he's tough at the illegals". 

[Howl]

I posted this in the Trump thread in the Politics forum, but I'll cross post here: 

Was reading through a thread about Trump trashing Christianity Today's endorsement of the impeachment process.  Lots of Trumper Xtians chiming in.  Here's one, that pretty much sums up the Trumper Xtian viewpoint and why they are still unshakable in their belief in Trump: 

It encapsulates the belief that Christians have been under attack from the evil liberals just FOREVER and Trump is their savior from the heathens who are trying to destroy them in the culture wars. 

It's important to pay attention to this because these are people who are committed to the US being, literally, a Christian country -- this is the extent that Dominionism is alive and well.  

Edited December 20, 2019 by Howl

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

It encapsulates the belief that Christians have been under attack from the evil liberals just FOREVER and Trump is their savior from the heathens who are trying to destroy them in the culture wars. 

Yes, CT counts for nothing in what passes for minds among tRump's fundie fan base. 

Chrissy Stroop has been stressing this to people who are greeting the CT editorial with hallelujahs.

 

[HeadshipRegent]

I mean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pence was always the endgoal. 

https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

 

[ViolaSebastian]

31 minutes ago, HeadshipRegent said:

I mean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pence was always the endgoal. 

https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

 

I suspect your right and it makes my stomach hurt to think about. 

4 hours ago, Howl said:

I posted this in the Trump thread in the Politics forum, but I'll cross post here: 

Was reading through a thread about Trump trashing Christianity Today's endorsement of the impeachment process.  Lots of Trumper Xtians chiming in.  Here's one, that pretty much sums up the Trumper Xtian viewpoint and why they are still unshakable in their belief in Trump: 

It encapsulates the belief that Christians have been under attack from the evil liberals just FOREVER and Trump is their savior from the heathens who are trying to destroy them in the culture wars. 

It's important to pay attention to this because these are people who are committed to the US being, literally, a Christian country -- this is the extent that Dominionism is alive and well.  

Thanks for cross-posting; I stay out of the political forum for the most part, just for my own sanity. 

[libgirl2]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

I think he could come out as the Antichrist by now and they'd be, "yeah but he's tough at the illegals". 

I have a cousin who absolutely adores him. She calls him "My Trump". Anything he does wrong she has an excuse for. And she is Hispanic. I always say, if he met her he would ask her to clean his toilets. She would be "my Mexican maid", even though she isn't Mexican. 

I also have an old time family friend (who is elderly) that adores him. She is Italian Catholic. Nice woman but she is a fanatic too. She despises Democrats and even middle of the road Republicans. It makes me sad because it really tarnishes her. 

So yes, there are people who will always adore him. Who will fanatically support him no matter what. There will always be an excuse. Jesus Christ could come down and denounce him. Won't make a difference. Jesus would be a "libtard" snow flake. 

My only hope is somewhere there are good people waking  up, enough to make a difference. There really are some f'd up people in this world who haven't a clue what they are doing. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by libgirl2

[ViolaSebastian]

4 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I also have an old time family friend (who is elderly) that adores him. She is Italian Catholic. Nice woman but she is a fanatic too. She despises Democrats and even middle of the road Republicans. It makes me sad because it really tarnishes her. 

It's interesting; I hang out on Catholic twitter and they, at least, seem to be fairly split between adoring Trump, mainly for his pro-life views, and despising him. Example:

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by ViolaSebastian

[dramallama]

Yeah, they're just excited because the smell the possibility of President Mike Pence.  That's the evangelical wet dream.

[Evangeline]

5 hours ago, ViolaSebastian said:

It's interesting; I hang out on Catholic twitter and they, at least, seem to be fairly split between adoring Trump, mainly for his pro-life views, and despising him. Example:

 

Kyle Howard is a black Southern Baptist. Nice guy but he's way more optimistic about the SBC changing its racist core than I can understand. 

[ViolaSebastian]

13 hours ago, Evangeline said:

Kyle Howard is a black Southern Baptist. Nice guy but he's way more optimistic about the SBC changing its racist core than I can understand. 

Ah, he just popped up and I assumed. Still, it's an interesting split. 

[zeebaneighba]

18 hours ago, dramallama said:

Yeah, they're just excited because the smell the possibility of President Mike Pence.  That's the evangelical wet dream.

Just noting that I am disgusted by the thought of a Pence presidency, not your comment.

[Howl]

Surprised at the amount of MSM coverage being given to  Christianity Today's endorsement of impeachment.  Not complaining, bit surprised. 

[Howl]

On 12/20/2019 at 12:24 PM, hoipolloi said:

Yes, CT counts for nothing in what passes for minds among tRump's fundie fan base. 

Chrissy Stroop has been stressing this to people who are greeting the CT editorial with hallelujahs.

I strongly recommend following Chrissy Stroop on twitter @C_Stroop or on her podcast. 

[apple1]

Another editorial from Christianity Today:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-evangelicals-editorial-christianity-today-president.html

Quote

… this is not merely about impeachment, or even merely about President Trump. He is not the sickness. He is a symptom of a sickness that began before him, which is the hyper-politicization of the American church. This is a danger for all of us, wherever we fall on the political spectrum. Jesus said we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. With profound love and respect, we ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to consider whether they have given to Caesar what belongs only to God: their unconditional loyalty...

This is only one small bit from the most recent editorial. The entire piece is well worth the read.

While it is difficult to put all that CT wrote into a short summary, as a self-identified Christian, I fully agree with the excerpt I posted here.

[47of74]

After The Christian Post went full Branch Trumpvidian its editor quit. 

Quote

A former editor for The Christian Post said Thursday he had "no other choice" but to resign from his job after the Christian news website issued a strong editorial supporting President Donald Trump.

"When I was told this would be the position of the paper, of the news site, I said that's not something I can support," Napp Nazworth, who announced on Monday that he had resigned from The Christian Post, told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day."

Nazworth's resignation came amid a heated debate among evangelicals about Trump, who enjoys overwhelming support from the community despite his controversial public behavior and comments.

He also likened the Christian news website to the far-right website Breitbart, which is supportive of the President and his policies.

 

[PennySycamore]

Meanwhile, new subscriptions to Christianity Today are way up since they published their anti-Trump editorial.

[Coconut Flan]

More info on Trump and the evangelicals and how it affects the churches.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion/christianity-todays-split-with-trump-highlights-deeper-issue-in-white-evangelical-america-idUSKBN1YX09N

[Howl]

I was surprised I had to go back THREE PAGES and six month to find the right thread to post this in. USA Today posted this August 25, 2020 op-ed from Billy Graham's granddaughter Jerusha: 

I'm Billy Graham's granddaughter. Evangelical support of Donald Trump spits on his legacy  By supporting Donald Trump, evangelical leaders are failing us and failing the gospel. Christian women must step up where our church leaders won't.

She speaks movingly to the women who have doubts but who are afraid to voice them in a pro-Trump environment.  She addresses this powerfully and directly. 

Excerpt: 

Quote

Women of faith know better  I have given myself permission to lean into that tug in my spirit and speak out. I may be against the tide, but I am firm in my faith that this step is most consistent with my church and its teachings.

At a recent large family event, I was pulled aside by many female family members thanking me for speaking out against an administration that they, too, had been uncomfortable with. With tears in their eyes, they used a hushed tone, out of fear that they were alone or at risk of undeserved retribution.

How did we get here? How did we, as God-fearing women, find ourselves ignoring the disrespect and misogyny being shown from our president? Why do we feel we must express our discomfort in hushed whispers in quiet corners? Are we not allowed to stand up when it feels everyone else around us is sitting down?

This reminder for women of faith is especially important. 

Quote

The God we serve empowers us as women to represent Him before our churches. We represent God before we represented any political party or leader. When we fail to remember this, we are minimizing the role He created for us to fill. Jesus loved women; He served women; He valued women and we need to give ourselves permission to stand up and do the same.

I'm also saddened reading this because the subtext is that women in the church do not feel sufficiently empowered to act on what they know in their hearts is true. 

It gets under my skin a bit that she doesn't address why women thought they were making a vote for the lesser of two evils in 2016, when everything we know about Trump now, we knew than. 

Boz Tchividjian (awesome, fights sexual predators in churches), Tullian Tchividjian (disgraced preacher, made a comeback), and Jerusha Duford are all Billy Graham's grandchildren. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Howl

[hoipolloi]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

I'm Billy Graham's granddaughter. Evangelical support of Donald Trump spits on his legacy  By supporting Donald Trump, evangelical leaders are failing us and failing the gospel. Christian women must step up where our church leaders won't.

10 to 1 her Uncle Franklin tells her to STFU and go sit down with the wimmen-folks.

I know Franklin's lips are still firmly attached to tRump's ass so not expecting any changes there, but has Franklin said anything about Falwell Jr?