Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli opined this week that it was time for President Donald Trump to be “removed from office.” While acknowledging that Democrats have had their eye on impeaching Trump from the first day of his presidency, Galli argued that there was no contesting the facts of Trump’s misconduct in relation to Ukraine.
“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,” Galli wrote.
He went on to say that Americans were growing numb to Trump’s misbehavior because the 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,” Galli wrote. “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.”
Beyond personally condemning Trump, Galli encouraged all evangelical Christians to reconsider their support of the president.
“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,” he lectured. “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?”
In a response on his Facebook page, evangelical leader Franklin Graham revealed for the first time that his father, Billy Graham (the founder of Christianity Today), voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
“For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable,” Graham wrote. “Christianity Today failed to acknowledge that not one single Republican voted with the Democrats to impeach the President. I know a number of Republicans in Congress, and many of them are strong Christians. If the President were guilty of what the Democrats claimed, these Republicans would have joined with the Democrats to impeach him. But the Democrats were not even unanimous—two voted against impeachment and one voted present. This impeachment was politically motivated, 100% partisan.
“Why would Christianity Today choose to take the side of the Democrat left whose only goal is to discredit and smear the name of a sitting president?” he continued. “They want readers to believe the Democrat leadership rather than believe the President of the United States.”
