Christianity Today president and CEO Timothy Dalrymple Sunday spoke out about a recent editorial in the publication calling for President Donald Trump’s removal from office, insisting the organization is not “far-left” and saying the evangelical community has embraced the president with a “wholeheartedness” that is a problem.
“We are happy to celebrate the positive things the administration has accomplished,” Dalrymple wrote in his opinion piece published Sunday. “The problem is that we as evangelicals are also associated with President Trump’s rampant immorality, greed, and corruption; his divisiveness and race-baiting; his cruelty and hostility to immigrants and refugees; and more. In other words, the problem is the wholeheartedness of the embrace. It is one thing to praise his accomplishments; it is another to excuse and deny his obvious misuses of power.”
Last week’s editorial was written by Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of the publication. And while the piece focused on Trump’s impeachment, the matter goes deeper, said Dalrymple.
Trump “is not the sickness,” Dalrymple said. “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.”
On Sunday, 200 conservative evangelicals closed ranks around Trump, writing Dalyrmple a letter stating that the editorial “offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations.”
“We have received countless notes of encouragement from readers who were profoundly moved,” Dalrymple said. “On the other hand, we have heard from many readers who felt incensed and insulted.”
Meanwhile, Dalrymple said Trump would “have you believe we are ‘far left.’ Others have said we are not Bible-believing Christians. Neither is true.”
Christianity Today, founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, is “theologically conservative” and has no interest in partisan politics, Dalrymple also said.
However, “the alliance of American evangelicalism with this presidency has wrought enormous damage to Christian witness … while the Trump administration may be well regarded in some countries, in many more the perception of wholesale evangelical support for the administration has made toxic the reputation of the Bride of Christ.”
