I just watched CNN’s coverage of the Christianity Today editorial calling for the removal of Donald Trump. I hope that CNN will eventually bring in some people who know what they are talking about.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyc9sMslVrw&w=560&h=315]
CNN is framing the editorial as a “crack” in Donald Trump’s evangelical support. I think we need to be careful about such an analysis. Christianity Today represents an educated, thoughtful evangelical readership. I am guessing a small majority of Christianity Today readers DID NOT vote for Donald Trump in 2016. The readers of this magazine probably backed someone like Marco Rubio in the GOP primary. If they voted for Trump, they did so because they did not like Hillary and Trump was the lesser of two evils.
So will Mark Galli’s editorial have any influence on the number of white evangelicals who vote for Trump in 2020? It might make a small change, but most white evangelicals will probably still vote for Trump.
On the other hand, this editorial may just peel enough evangelicals away from Trump to make some kind of difference.
We will see what happens.