Christianity Today (CT) is a magazine founded in 1956 by evangelist Billy Graham. In 2019 CT editor-in-chief Mark Galli wrote, “In our founding documents, Billy Graham explains that Christianity Today will help evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith.
Speaking of President Trump in 2019 Galli said, “none of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.”
Galli was asked to explain his point that President Trump’s social media feed alone was, ”a near-perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.” Galli replied, “He slanders people. He mischaracterizes people. He outright lies. He says things that are verbally abusive to others. These are all moral problems.
You don’t have to be a religious person to recognize that they’re moral problems. And when a person has serious and longstanding and habitual moral habits like that, it’s not something just to condemn, but also suggests a deep psychological and moral confusion.”
Galli continued, “We like to think of ourselves as a magazine and a ministry that holds the line consistently on the things we think are important … what’s surprising as I reread the editorial about Clinton, how much it applied to President Trump … we’re being very consistent in terms of our understanding of the necessity for our national leader to have some measure of moral character.”
Over 80% of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, despite him breaking virtually every moral commandment Christians claim to hold sacred, including lying, cruelty and blasphemy. No one has been more willing to ascribe God’s will to our grossly immoral convicted felon president than Republican Evangelical leaders and complicit Republican politicians.
“Woe unto them that call evil good …” Isaiah 5:20. Evangelical leaders are devoted to Trump because he best represents them … moral decay chained to political ideology, “critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true,” to borrow from Carl Sagan.
An old German adage says, “You have been warned, if you ignore it, you’ll have to learn from pain.” Billy Graham’s magazine warned us about Trump in 2019. We ignored it and now comes pain for everyone but billionaire donors. Jesus didn’t come to turn Rome’s government into a Christian republic. He had higher goals and Billy Graham would be the first to agree.
Rolland Myers
rural Oakwood
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