Christianity Today’s Call for Trump’s Removal

Written by Laurie Higgins

Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of the former evangelical flagship magazine Christianity Today (CT) wrote a stunning editorial calling for President Trump’s removal from office via either impeachment or the next election. While acknowledging that “Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion,” Galli remarkably asserts that the case for Trump’s removal by hook or crook is indisputable:

But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

This statement is remarkable both for its factual inaccuracy and its manipulative diction. There is no proof that Trump attempted to coerce Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky into harassing and discrediting Joe Biden. He asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden for the influence-peddling corruption in which they appear to have engaged.

If, in claiming that Trump’s request to Zelensky violates the U.S. Constitution, Galli is referring to the impeachment statute regarding “high crimes and misdemeanors,” he errs in claiming that “the facts … are unambiguous.” Even constitutional scholars—which Galli is not—like Jonathan Turley, John Eastman, and Alan Dershowitz disagree on whether Trump’s request constitutes a high crime or misdemeanor, and on whether Trump has abused his power, and on what exactly an abuse of power is.

Galli goes on to say that “loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments” demands Trump be removed. Wowzer. I and many other theologically orthodox Christians did not realize our fidelity to Christ entails removing Trump from office, which will allow another profoundly immoral man or woman to lead. Would not loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments and life itself demand all Christians oppose anyone who supports feticide from assuming the presidency?

Galli claims that,

[T]his president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He 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.

What is Galli’s evidence for his claim that Trump has “dumbed down the idea of morality”? I would argue that Trump’s appointment of counter-cultural judges (which is to say, judges who respect the U.S. Constitution), his defense of the lives of the unborn, and his rescinding of Obama’s power-abusing “trans” edicts elevate morality. One wonders if Galli can distinguish between manners and morality.

Galli began his political screed by pridefully proclaiming how politically non-partisan CT is:

The typical CT approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians with different political convictions to make their arguments in the public square, to encourage all to pursue justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition as charitably as possible. We want CT to be a place that welcomes Christians from across the political spectrum, and reminds everyone that politics is not the end and purpose of our being. We take pride in the fact, for instance, that politics does not dominate our homepage.

Politics is not the “end and purpose of our being,” but “loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments” demands Christians remove Trump from office? Hmmm …

When Galli denounces evangelical Christians who oppose Trump’s removal for betraying their Creator, is he treating his brothers and sisters in Christ charitably?

It’s so generous of CT to “remain above the fray” and to “allow” Christians to make their arguments in the public square. I guess we should be grateful that CT so seldom deigns to lower itself into the fray.

Galli concludes portentously,

[I]t’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.

Neither the “reputation of evangelical religion,” nor the criminal convictions of several of Trump’s former employees or staffers, nor Trump’s past “immoral actions in business,” nor past immoral relationships “with women,” nor his “Twitter feed,” should determine whether we support Trump’s removal from office. Our view of his removal should be determined by the policy decisions he has made and by the policy decisions that will be made by his replacement.

If Galli believes men (and/or women) some of whose former employees have been found guilty of criminal convictions, have engaged in “immoral actions in business” or with women, or have expressed boorish ideas publicly should be removed from office, he’s got a boatload of editorials to write.

What kind of moral calculus does Galli use to conclude that Trump’s failings render him less worthy of elected office than the moral failings of those who support the legal right to exterminate the unborn like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Cory Booker? Is the “reputation” of evangelical Christianity of greater importance than the lives of the unborn? Has the dumbing down of the idea of morality by leftists led to Galli not recognizing the profound immorality of those who support the extermination of the unborn?

Does Galli think that justice will be better served by the party whose social and economic policies have decimated the black family than Trump who has done more economically for the black community than any other president?

If Galli thinks Trump should be removed from office for his offenses, what does he think should have happened to Obama—who claimed to be a Christian and whose abuses of power and lies are now legendary (Click here and here)?

So, is it really Trump’s personal moral failings or ill-considered—though not criminal or unconstitutional—request to President Zelensky that drive Galli’s effort to unseat Trump, or is it Galli’s excessive concern about the “reputation of evangelical Christianity?” If he’s driven by the latter, then he best abandon theological orthodoxy on sexuality because nothing diminishes the reputation of evangelical Christianity like opposing same-sex pseudo-marriage, pronoun diktats, and the sexual integration of private spaces.

Galli disingenuously implores evangelicals to stop doing what they’re not doing:

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.

There are many deeply committed, spiritually mature evangelical Christians who oppose the removal of Trump from office but do not “brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior.” Neither do they say anything akin to “the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t matter.”

During the primary, Trump was not the first, second, or third choice of many evangelical Christians who now oppose his removal from office. They oppose his removal from office because those who would replace him also have bent and broken moral characters, and their brokenness will more grievously harm the nation than will Trump’s. Every man and woman has a bent and broken character, and supporting, for example, feticide and the sexual integration of private spaces reveals a deeply bent and broken character.

Evangelical Christians don’t support or excuse unethical business dealings, boorish tweets, or marital infidelity. Those who oppose Trump’s removal do so because they believe the alternative to Trump is infinitely more destructive to individual lives and the common good. They support Trump’s presidency despite his moral failings just as CT today continues to respect the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. despite his egregious moral failings.

In a CNN interview, Galli said, “When Christians of any stripe support a cause that strikes me as manifestly immoral, it does damage to the cause [i.e., spreading the gospel] I’ve given my life to.” So, if Trump is removed, as per Galli’s desire, and purportedly Christian, bent and broken Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, or Pete Buttigieg were to assume the presidency, will Galli call for his or her removal because of his or her support for the legalized slaughter of the unborn, which according to Galli’s statement does damage to the cause he’s given his life to?

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently announced that she may not send the articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate unless she is guaranteed a “fair process” by which she meant a process that guarantees Democrats the outcome they want—which, of course, would constitute the antithesis of a fair process. U.S. Representative Al Green (D-TX) said in May, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.” Two weeks ago, U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, “We cannot rely on an election to solve our problem.”

The words and actions of Democrats expose their totalitarian motives—motives that include robbing Americans of the right to choose their president. The impeachment burlesque is a bald-faced abuse of power. Democrats have provided ample reason why they don’t deserve the presidency or control of Congress. I guess their abuse of power and their support for feticide and sexual deviance—all of which undermine Scriptural truths and, therefore, lead people away from God—don’t concern Galli as much as the “reputation of evangelical Christianity.”

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