Not all Evangelicals love US President Donald Trump - Analysis
Christianity Today brought into the American public eye something many may not have realized...
By HERB KEINONPresident Donald Trump speaks as he welcomes Paraguay s President Mario Abdo Benitez to the White House in the Oval Office on December 13, 2019 in Washington, D.C.(photo credit: STHANLEE B. MIRADOR/SIPA USA/TNS)
An editorial on Thursday in Christianity Today, a magazine founded 53 years ago by no less an Evangelical icon than Billy Graham, brought into the American public eye something many may not have realized: not all Evangelicals love US President Donald Trump.Many do, but not all. And one of those who does not is Mark Galli, the editor-in-chief of the small but prominent magazine. Galli set off a storm when – a day after the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump – he wrote an editorial supporting the move.“Trump’s Evangelical supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy, among other things, as achievements that justify their support of the president,” he wrote. But, he added, “None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.”That argument, that the failings of Trumps’ character outweigh the good he is doing, is one also often heard in the Jewish community – by people who love and support Israel, yet loathe the president.In their eyes, the undeniable good that Trump has done for Israel is far outweighed by what they see as the nastiness of the man.“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.Those US Jews who detest the president could have just as easily written that sentence to their co-religionists who support the president, changing just a few words: “To the many Israel supporters 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.”In the 2016 elections, 81% of Americans who identify as Evangelicals – a number believed to be just under a quarter of the US population – voted for Trump.By contrast, 71% of American Jews voted for Hillary Clinton.Those numbers reinforce the idea that the two communities are monolithic, and lead to statements such as, “all Jews hate Trump, and all Evangelicals love him.”
That all Jews don’t hate Trump is evidenced by the fact that 24% voted for him in 2016, and that he is greeted enthusiastically in many Orthodox and pro-Israel circles. That all Evangelicals don’t love Trump is evidenced by Christianity Today’s editorial.And why does that editorial matter for Israel? Because Evangelical support has turned into a bedrock of support for Israel in the US – and on certain issues and at certain times, that support is even stronger than among the Jews.It is the Evangelicals – not US Jews – who most strongly pushed the president to move the embassy to Jerusalem and recognize it as Israel’s capital, and it was apparently to please the Evangelical base that the Trump administration declared that it does not view settlements as illegal.The Evangelicals are a powerful political base in the US, and if there are cracks in their support for Trump, does that also mean there are cracks in their support for Israel?Just as the Evangelical community is not monolithic in its support of Trump, it is also not monolithic in its support for Israel – not all Evangelicals are members of Christians United for Israel. Although surveys show that most of the community is overwhelmingly pro-Israel, there are other voices there as well who are critical and pro-Palestinian. And millennials – according to a 2017 survey of Evangelical attitudes toward the Jewish state – are much less supportive of Israel than their parents.There was no hint in the Christianity Today editorial – which some Trump opponents trumpeted as a sign of a turning of the tide in Evangelical support for the US president – of any equivalent weakening of support for Israel.Yet there will still be people, among those who carefully monitor support for Israel among different sectors of the US population, who will be asking themselves whether an Evangelical who does not support Trump translates into an Evangelical who does not support Israel.The Christianity Today editorial made no mention of Israel, but an angry rebuttal did – by nearly 200 Evangelical leaders in a letter to the magazine’s president.“We are, in fact, not ‘far-right’ Evangelicals as characterized by the author,” the letter read.“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.”One thing that the Christianity Today editorial shows is that some Jews – and some Evangelicals – share the following dilemma of the Trump era: Do you support someone who strongly supports causes dear to you, or is that support somehow tainted – or perhaps not even worth it – because of its source?
