https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/us/politics/christianity-today-trump-evangelicals.html
Evangelical Leaders Close Ranks With Trump After Scathing Editorial
Christianity Today’s call for President Trump’s removal gave voice to his evangelical critics. But they remain a minority in a political movement that Mr. Trump has reshaped in his own mold.
By Elizabeth Dias and Jeremy W. Peters
Dec. 20, 2019 Updated 6:43 p.m. ET
The publication is small, reaching just a fraction of the evangelical movement.
But when Christianity Today called for President Trump’s removal in a blistering editorial on Thursday, it met the full force and fury of the president and his most prominent allies in the Christian conservative world. If the response seemed disproportionate, it vividly reflected the fact that white evangelicals are the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s political base and their leaders are among his most visible and influential supporters.
The response from his leading Christian supporters was laced with animosity that mimicked Mr. Trump’s signature style, and reflected the extent to which they have moved into lock step with him, even in rhetoric.
The power of the evangelicals as a voting bloc is in their sheer size, and in their symbiotic relationship with the president. “Because they are a third of the Republican base, Trump needs white evangelical Protestants to get elected,” said Robert P. Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute. “And because white evangelicals see themselves as a shrinking minority, in both racial and religious terms, they need Trump.”
For the past several years, conservative American politics, and white evangelical Christianity along with it, has realigned steadily and solidly around Mr. Trump and his coalition. Much like the “Never Trump” voices within the Republican Party, evangelical detractors have receded into the background.
= new reply since forum marked as read
