The conversation occurred on WBUR-Boston. Listen here.
Some of you may recall that Richard Land was behind the editorial that led to the resignation of its political editor Napp Nazworth.
A few takeaways:
- Galli says he had been planning the Christianity Today editorial for “five or ten minutes” before he wrote it.
- Galli has a history of trying to get evangelicals on the Left and Right to talk to one another. But this editorial was different. He said “we crossed the rubicon.” He needed to speak out against Trump
- Galli responds to his evangelical critics: “They pass this off, when they do respond … many pass it off, and say, ‘Well, he’s fighting for the causes we care about. And if he has a few rough edges, we can live with that.’ And they don’t seem to recognize that a man who calls his political enemies crazy, and lying, and disgraced, and losers, and crooked, and phony and fake — and does this day in and day out, often many times a day — they don’t seem to recognize that he is exacerbating the culture of contempt, which was already well under way before he became president. I mean, Hillary Clinton called many Americans a basket of deplorables. But it’s no question that President Trump has taken that to a new level. And the fact that they don’t connect that with the biblical verses about holding one’s tongue — and how dangerous the tongue can be, and how powerful words are, and how we have to be guarded in our speaking — they seem to have completely made a disconnect between those things. And to call that type of language ‘rough edges’ is to miss the gravity of what’s going on.”
- Galli does not believe that pro-Trumpers are fearful. Meghna Chakrabarti pushes back. Galli responds by saying that the left is also fearful. This sounds a lot like John Wilson, Galli’s former colleague.
- Does evangelical support of Trump hurt their Christian witness? Galli says that there is a LOT of anecdotal evidence to suggest that it is. He references the many letters he has received in response to his editorial.
- Galli says that the word “evangelical” is now just a political world. It has become useless.
- Galli responds to Franklin Graham’s claim that he has “lost his mind.” He defends the idea that Christianity Today is still following Billy Graham’s founding vision.
- Land enters the conversation and criticizes Galli for his “elitism.” He praises Donald Trump’s policies on abortion and religious liberty. Land believes that the best way to reduce the number of abortion is to elect the right president. I am not sure this is true.
- Galli explains what he means by “elitism.” He didn’t use the term in previous writings for the purpose of looking down his nose at evangelical Trump voters. He was just stating a fact. Indeed, Galli is correct here. Most of Trump’s evangelical support does come from the working class.
- Land says that most Southern Baptists were not voting for Donald Trump in 2016. They were voting against Hillary Clinton. Land then turns the conversation again to abortion.
- Galli says that pro-Trump evangelicals fail to “hold Trump’s feet to the fire” when he advances a “culture of contempt” with his rhetoric. Such a culture, Galli says, is detrimental to the nation and the church. Land responds. Says that the “culture of contempt” did not start with Trump. He refers to rhetoric by Obama and Hillary Clinton. This, of course, is a logical fallacy. Barack Obama is no longer President. Hillary Clinton is not president. Galli is not writing about Obama and Hillary. He is writing about Trump.
- An evangelical caller and mother is upset that evangelical Christians are not coming out and supporting Trump’s “bullying.” Land responds by saying Obama and Hillary were also bullies. He seems to suggest that there is a moral equivalence between Trump and Obama/Hillary on this issue.
