Recently we shared a couple of articles about an editorial published in Christianity Today magazine, Christianity Today Magazine Overrun By Leftists, Now Calling for Trump’s Removal and a response to the editorial, Billy’s Son, Franklin Graham, Body-Slams CT Magazine’s Editorial For Invoking the Elder Graham’s Name Against Trump.
The editorial’s author, Mark Galli, even doubled down on his position, and his boss, Dr. Timothy Dalrymple, backed him up.
In response to the editorial, nearly 200 prominent Christian leaders wrote a letter to Dr. Dalrymple.
From Charisma News, the text of the full letter follows:
We write collectively to express our dissatisfaction with the editorial Christianity Today published on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 calling for the removal of our duly elected president, who was put into office at the behest of over 60 million voters.
It was astonishing to us that your editor-in-chief, Mark Galli, further offensively dismissed our point of view on CNN by saying, “Christianity Today is not read by the people—Christians on the far right, by evangelicals on the far right—so they’re going to be as dismissive of the magazine as President Trump has shown to be.” It also came to our attention, that Mr. Galli has written other statements about Americans who chose Donald Trump over Secretary Clinton in 2016, referring to them as “These other evangelicals [who] often haven’t finished college, and if they have jobs, and apparently most of them don’t, they are blue-collar jobs or entry level work” as he describes himself with pride as an “elite evangelical.”
Of course, it’s up to your publication to decide whether or not your magazine intends to be a voice of evangelicals like those represented by the signatories below, and it is up to us and those evangelicals like us to decide if we should subscribe to, advertise in and read your publication online and in print, but historically, we have been your readers.
We are, in fact, not “far-right” evangelicals, as characterized by the author.
Rather, we are Bible-believing Christians and patriotic Americans who are simply grateful that our president has sought our advice as his administration has advanced policies that protect the unborn, promote religious freedom, reform our criminal justice system, contribute to strong working families through paid family leave, protect the freedom of conscience, prioritize parental rights and ensure that our foreign policy aligns with our values while making our world safer, including through our support of the state of Israel. We are not theocrats, and we recognize that our imperfect political system is a reflection of the fallen world within which we live, reliant upon the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is freely given to sinner and saint, alike.
We are proud to be numbered among those in history who, like Jesus, have been pretentiously accused of having too much grace for tax collectors and sinners, and we take deeply our personal responsibility to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s—our public service.
The editorial you published, without any meaningful and immediate regard for dissenting points of view, not only supported the entirely partisan, legally dubious and politically motivated impeachment but went even further, calling for Donald Trump not to be elected again in 2020 when he certainly survives impeachment.
As one of our signatories said to the press, “I hope Christianity Today will now tell us who they will support for president among the 2020 Democrat field?”
Your editorial offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens of millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations.
It not only targeted our president; it also targeted those of us who support him and have supported you.
Sincerely,
What follows the letter is the list of the participating signatories, which you can read for yourself in Charisma Magazine’s article at the link above.
The Daily Wire reported Dr. Dalrymple’s response, a part of which you can see here:
“Christianity Today has no interest in partisan politics. It does not endorse candidates. We aim to bring biblical wisdom and beautiful storytelling both to the church and from the church to the world.”
Then he segued to Trump, writing, “Out of love for Jesus and his church, not for political partisanship or intellectual elitism, this is why we feel compelled to say that the alliance of American evangelicalism with this presidency has wrought enormous damage to Christian witness. It has alienated many of our children and grandchildren. It has harmed African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American brothers and sisters.”
Dalrymple posited that the issue at hand was 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.”
Speaking for myself, I am one of the “silent majority” of Christians (well, perhaps not so silent, considering I’m putting this out there for you to read) that voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and I will DEFINITELY vote for him to be reelected in 2020.
Is he a “perfect” man? Absolutely not. There has only been one perfect man, and his name is Jesus Christ! But I didn’t vote to hire Donald Trump because I wanted him to be my pastor, I voted for him because I wanted someone who loves the country and would fight to make America great again! President Trump has delivered “in spades,” as the saying goes. The country would have been doomed to extinction if Hillary was the president.
I haven’t felt this proud to be an American since Ronald Reagan was in the Oval Office!
