Headlines across the nation herald presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s Tuesday meeting with over 1,000 major Evangelical leaders and the launch of his Evangelical Executive Advisory Board which includes James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and David Jeremiah. It’s understandable if you want to avoid more presidential race coverage, but we just can’t ignore some of our Evangelical leaders’ puzzling response to Trump.
According to The Washington Post, “the Donald” earned a standing ovation from his captivated conservative Christian audience. With such a warm and fuzzy response to a man known for having a very public affair, bringing the first strip club to Atlantic City’s casinos, and prompting brazen misogyny, it’s hard to ignore a compromising shift in attitudes among certain Evangelical leaders.
Before pro-Trump supporters unleash against me on Twitter, let me explain.
During the 2012 presidential election, I worked for Concerned Women for America. Penny Young Nance served as President and CEO. While working on a “She Votes” project, Nance told me “when picking a president, character counts.” I remember she explained the mantra was especially popular among the Religious Right during the Clinton administration, but Nance noted “character counts” is not an expectation solely reserved for Democrats. Character counts when picking a president. Period.
Too bad some members of the Religious Right don’t follow Nance’s good advice. For some of the Evangelicals now serving on Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board, a president’s character counted during the Clinton administration. Why should a Republican’s character not count to the same critics of President Clinton, when choosing a president today?
On Wednesday, Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, raised this point on The Briefing podcast. “Conservative Evangelicals were very quick to criticize Bill Clinton for his sexual infidelities and furthermore to make the open argument that Bill Clinton’s fitness for office had been undermined in terms of the office of the presidency by his sexual misbehavior,” Mohler explained. But today we see some of those same Evangelical leaders endorsing a presidential candidate who boasts of his sexual decadence.
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SOURCE: Juicy Ecumenism
Chelsen Vicari
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