Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Support independent, faith-based journalism. Donate
Search Search this site

The Christianity Today editorial: exposing the American evangelical dilemma

OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist  |  December 27, 2019

If you haven’t heard about the now infamous Christianity Today editorial, you probably live in a “wine cave” somewhere. (Sorry, that’s another story.) On the way to Christmas, the evangelical-oriented journal founded in 1956 by evangelist Billy Graham, published a bombshell editorial written by soon-to-retire editor Mark Galli. Coming on the heels of articles of impeachment against Donald Trump by the U.S. House of Representatives, and statistics indicating evangelical support for Trump at 70 to 80 percent, the editorial was a dramatic insider critique of a president and a Christian community.

Galli began by asserting that while Democrats “have had it in for Trump” from the beginning, the impeachment reveals that “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.”

Turning to American evangelicals, Galli noted:

“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?”

“The editorial was a dramatic insider critique of a president and a Christian community.”

Responses were fast and furious, with online traffic at one point collapsing CT’s website. President Trump tweeted his denunciation, suggesting that the periodical is failing, and that it had been co-opted by the “radical left.” A group of some 200 evangelical leaders circulated an “open letter” to CT lamenting the editorial’s criticism of Trump’s conservative Christian advocates and accusing the editor of questioning “the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations.”

Alternatively, the “open letter” declared that “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.”

As the dialogue heated up, Timothy Dalrymple, CT’s president and CEO, entered the fray, writing: “We are happy to celebrate the positive things the administration has accomplished. 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.”

Assorted journalists, academics and evangelical practitioners predicted that the editorial would doubtless fail to change opinions inside and outside the evangelical community. Yet it clearly struck a nerve, confirming that the nation, churches included, remains deeply, if not irrevocably, divided not only over politics and party, but also over religion in general and Christianity in particular.

CT’s prime editorial concern involved the continuing impact of those divisions on the church’s witness at home and abroad, a sobering consideration for American Christians in general and evangelical Christians in particular. Dalrymple observed, “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.”

“Almost 80 percent of American senior adults are white and Christian while 29 percent of young adults are white and Christian.”

American evangelicalism is certainly no monolith but involves a broad spectrum of participants proceeding from Appalachian Pentecostal serpent-handlers to Calvinist-oriented mega-churches; from Jim Wallis and Sojourners to James Dobson and Focus on the Family. In the broader society, however, those distinctions may be too nuanced, especially because, as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne has written, “we live in a moment when Christianity is losing ground, especially among the young.” Like it or not, the evangelical dilemma has implications for the way much of Christianity is viewed throughout American culture; the CT editorial simply punctuated that reality.

And what exactly is the evangelical dilemma? I’d suggest the following:

  • This specific evangelical dilemma is largely that of white evangelicals. Yes, there are some evangelicals-of-color who have joined the evangelical majority, but their numbers are minute. This racial reality has significant implications for issues of diversity, race and the church’s future in the U.S. As Vox co-founder Ezra Klein and others have noted, almost 80 percent of American senior adults are white and Christian while 29 percent of young adults are white and Christian. Will evangelicals lose that younger generation?
  • Claiming the moral high ground can become an ethical minefield. From the early days of the Republic, evangelically positioned Christians have not only called Americans to “receive Christ as Savior and Lord,” but to serve as exemplars of and advocates for ethical consistency in church and society. The assertion that they are “Bible-believing Christians” (apparently in contrast to those Christians who are not) was and remains a formidable claim to make, especially by evangelicals who affirmed slavery and white supremacy, or, as CT notes, by those who appear to “brush off” their leader’s “immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency.”
  • Make no mistake, the CT editorial highlights an evangelicalism at a moral and theological crossroads in American life, confronted by the meaning of its mission and witness. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said it like this: “Evangelicals cannot have it both ways. They can’t claim to be a clarion voice of Christian values in the public square while at the same time behaving in politics like amoral secularists. Why should anyone take them seriously if they talk the talk but won’t walk the walk?” A more earthy friend of mine says, “At least we don’t have to let evangelicals tell us how to have sex anymore.”
  • Truth is, at this moment in history, questions regarding the nature of a gospel witness challenge all Christian communities in the land of the free and the home of the ethically compromised. Writing in the LA Times, Dartmouth professor and Episcopal clergyman Randall Balmer, asks why CT took so long to address the evangelical dilemma in church and state. He affirms the editorial, while offering a challenge to all American Christians: “Assuming the mantle of prophet is all well and good. But a prophetic voice seeks to avert calamity rather than redress it.”

Averting a church/state calamity in the year of our Lord (?) 2020 will be difficult, requiring as many prophets and as much courage as we can muster. Best get ready.


OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:Donald TrumpAmerican EvangelicalismEvangelicalsChristianity TodayReligion and PoliticsWhite evangelicals
Bill Leonard, Senior Columnist
More by
Bill Leonard, Senior Columnist
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      Opinion

    • Coronavirus challenging denominational summer conventions yet again

      News

    • One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics

      Opinion

    • What I learned by listening to women pastors during the pandemic

      Analysis


    Curated

    • Myanmar’s Christian refugees hold anti-coup protest in India

      Myanmar’s Christian refugees hold anti-coup protest in India

      March 4, 2021
    • Tanzania’s President Focused on Prayer as Coronavirus Cases Climbed

      Tanzania’s President Focused on Prayer as Coronavirus Cases Climbed

      March 4, 2021
    • After Ravi Zacharias report, Christians examine how to avoid ‘betrayal blindness’

      After Ravi Zacharias report, Christians examine how to avoid ‘betrayal blindness’

      March 4, 2021
    • Why a Catholic journalist is urging the church to engage Black Lives Matter

      Why a Catholic journalist is urging the church to engage Black Lives Matter

      March 4, 2021
    Read Next:

    Free Lenten daily devotionals offered

    NewsBNG staff

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Black Baptist women in ministry and the principality of patriarchy

      OpinionAidsand Wright-Riggins

    • Author of Eugene Peterson biography was one of many shaped by America’s pastor

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Evangelicals are in trouble: Reclaiming ‘Oberlinism” could bring some redemption

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • U.S. agency calls for more religious freedom in Nigeria

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Repressing my sexual orientation cost me my health — permanently

      OpinionAmber Cantorna

    • World religious leaders remember Shahbaz Bhatti as martyr 10 years later

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • The charismatic story is part of the Baptist story, historian contends

      NewsPat Cole

    • Finding charity amidst the chaos one year into the coronavirus pandemic

      OpinionCurtis Ramsey-Lucas

    • Son’s legacy lives on through Kansas City ministry for children with special needs

      NewsHelen Jerman

    • Maybe your church needs a minister of loneliness

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • Rural churches need to understand the cultural capital of their communities

      AnalysisBrian Foreman and Justin Nelson

    • How slavery still shapes the world of white evangelical Christians

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • New study finds affirmation of Black church experience even as attendance declines

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Faith leaders call for an end to racial bullying in the Indiana legislature

      OpinionIvan Douglas Hicks

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Christian nationalism deeply embedded into American life, Tyler warns

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Faith community nurses ‘carry the hope’ during COVID-19 pandemic

      NewsLiam Adams

    • What I learned by listening to women pastors during the pandemic

      AnalysisSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Coronavirus challenging denominational summer conventions yet again

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why vote to fund something you won’t ever use?

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth

      OpinionJordan Conley

    • Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Author of Eugene Peterson biography was one of many shaped by America’s pastor

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • U.S. agency calls for more religious freedom in Nigeria

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • World religious leaders remember Shahbaz Bhatti as martyr 10 years later

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The charismatic story is part of the Baptist story, historian contends

      NewsPat Cole

    • Son’s legacy lives on through Kansas City ministry for children with special needs

      NewsHelen Jerman

    • New study finds affirmation of Black church experience even as attendance declines

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Christian nationalism deeply embedded into American life, Tyler warns

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Faith community nurses ‘carry the hope’ during COVID-19 pandemic

      NewsLiam Adams

    • Coronavirus challenging denominational summer conventions yet again

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Diverse religious coalition urges Congress to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • She’s Gen-Z, became leery of the church but practices faith with fitness

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • As people walk away from the church in droves, Russ Dean hopes to tell the old story in a new way

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The strange saga of the Riley Foundation lawsuit now forces SBC to figure out who has the right to remove a seminary trustee

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • In-person worship dropped in January as more churches were directly affected by COVID

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Caldwell succeeds Anderson as chair of BNG board

      NewsBNG staff

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Final vote sounds the death knell for capital punishment in Virginia

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Reeves to lead Fellowship Southwest

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Three years later, Leah Sharibu is still held captive, reportedly for refusing to renounce her faith

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Wake Forest Divinity gets $5 million grant to help combat HIV/AIDS

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Making the case for why Black History Month is necessary

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Baylor regents ‘accept’ racial history report, will release findings by end of March

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Black Baptist women in ministry and the principality of patriarchy

      OpinionAidsand Wright-Riggins

    • Evangelicals are in trouble: Reclaiming ‘Oberlinism” could bring some redemption

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Repressing my sexual orientation cost me my health — permanently

      OpinionAmber Cantorna

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Finding charity amidst the chaos one year into the coronavirus pandemic

      OpinionCurtis Ramsey-Lucas

    • Maybe your church needs a minister of loneliness

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • How slavery still shapes the world of white evangelical Christians

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • Faith leaders call for an end to racial bullying in the Indiana legislature

      OpinionIvan Douglas Hicks

    • One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Why vote to fund something you won’t ever use?

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth

      OpinionJordan Conley

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Canada labels Uyghur repression ‘genocide,’ but that’s not as exemplary as you might think

      OpinionRay Mwareya

    • About disfellowshipping churches based on the ‘clear’ teaching of Scripture

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • What the SBC should learn from the Ravi Zacharias tragedy

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • The Black church and the salvation of the world

      OpinionPaul Robeson Ford

    • St. Benedict and a two-fold path for the church In America

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • What if we cared about Black History Month as much as Lent?

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • Prophecy is obedient imagination

      OpinionAlan Bean

    • How much wealth does America need before we’ll address homelessness?

      OpinionMichael Chancellor

    • Why we need to talk about abortion

      OpinionRuss Dean

    • How travel and food break through barriers that divide us

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • Is the church only for ‘good Christians’?

      OpinionTerry Austin

    • Raging at God after my 67-year-old father died of COVID

      OpinionCarol McEntyre

    • Why I wrote about hope in disarray

      OpinionGrace Ji-Sun Kim

    • Myanmar’s Christian refugees hold anti-coup protest in India

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Tanzania’s President Focused on Prayer as Coronavirus Cases Climbed

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • After Ravi Zacharias report, Christians examine how to avoid ‘betrayal blindness’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why a Catholic journalist is urging the church to engage Black Lives Matter

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Vaccinated for virus, Jimmy Carter and wife back in church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Black Church Group Offers Its Best Shot at Closing Vaccine Gap

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ravi Zacharias’s Denomination Revokes Ordination

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Disinformation Fuels A White Evangelical Movement. It Led 1 Virginia Pastor To Quit

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Southern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Rush Limbaugh, who shaped conservative Christian politics on the radio, has died

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Dallas faith groups help shelter homeless Texans during deep freeze

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • SBU Trustees Reverse Some Tenure/Promotion Denials

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • U.S. Supreme Court sides with Alabama death row inmate, declines to lift stay of execution over state’s refusal to allow clergy in chamber

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Survey: Black Americans attend church and pray more often

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Christian Bookstores Survived 2020

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Celebrating Ash Wednesday in a pandemic? There’s an app for that

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • From ‘Lent-in-a-box’ to ‘ash n dash’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • No execution: Courts side with inmate wanting pastor present

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • New Arkansas Law Exempts Churches from Pandemic Restrictions

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Survey: More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Evangelical Colleges Consider the Future of Online Education After COVID-19

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Law firm details sexual misconduct by global ministry leader

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Nation’s first human-composting funeral home is now open in the state of Washington

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2021 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS