President Trump on Friday excoriated evangelical magazine Christianity Today after it published an editorial backing his impeachment and removal.
Christianity Today was founded by reknowned preacher Billy Graham in 1956, however in recent years it has not been closely associated with the Graham family. The editorial was written by magazine editor-in-chief Mark Galli, who retires on January 3, 2020. Galli called the President’s actions with regard to Ukraine “a violation of the Constitution” and “immoral.”
“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,” Galli wrote, directly appealing to evangelical voters. “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.”
Trump slammed the editorial in a tweet on Friday morning.
“A far left magazine, or very ‘progressive,’ as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call and would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President,” Trump wrote.
Billy Graham’s son Franklin also condemned the magazine.
“My father would be embarrassed,” Graham told the New York Times.
“It is not going to change anybody’s mind about Trump,” he continued. “There’s a liberal element within the evangelical movement. Christianity Today represents that.
The magazine has a print circulation of about 80,000 readers. So many people read the editorial online that the magazine’s website crashed on Thursday night.