Leading evangelical publication Christianity Today was founded by the late evangelist Billy Graham in 1956 and now, in a strange twist of fate, the readers who helped propel the publication into the spotlight are joining in numbers favoring POTUS getting the boot out of public office. To be fair, there has been some blood spilled. The newly splintered sphere of vocal readers caused one-third of subscribers to cancel their membership to the publication – but get this: according to Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli, the publication has gained three times as many subscribers in the process.
“Although we’ve lost hundreds of subscribers, we’ve gained three times as many subscribers,” Galli told Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC on Sunday. Adding later, “Something flipped” during the impeachment hearings.”
Galli penned the op-ed that started the shakedown in the first place, wherein he criticized Trump’s “grossly immoral character” throughout the Mueller investigation and impeachment hearings.
“We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath,” he wrote in the op-ed. “The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see.”
The letter also stated: “The typical CT [Christianity Times] 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. That said, we do feel it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear—always, as Graham encouraged us, doing so with both conviction and love. We love and pray for our president, as we love and pray for leaders (as well as ordinary citizens) on both sides of the political aisle.”
Watch the MSNBC interview here and read the dissenting tweets below.
The op-ed concluded:
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?
We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr. Trump. To use an old cliché, it’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.
Even with the tremendous spike in subscribers, Galli’s days with Christianity Today are numbered. The editor told CNN last week he plans on leaving the publication.
Image via MSNBC screengrab.