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Southern Baptist seminary president Al Mohler makes it official. He voted for Trump

John Fea   |  October 27, 2020

We have written before about Al Mohler‘s support for Donald Trump. Just to be clear, Mohler is not arguing, like some evangelicals, that Christians should not vote for Biden. He is arguing that Christian should vote for Donald Trump.

Here is the crux of his recent piece:

  1. Trump or Biden might die and Mike Pence is a better option than Kamala Harris. Mohler writes, “I do not have to blink in deciding between the prospect of a President Mike Pence versus a President Kamala Harris.”
  2. Trump lacks basic moral character, but so does Biden.
  3. Mohler would prefer to have Biden as a neighbor, but he is not voting for a neighbor.
  4. Mohler believes that “love is to be the animating motivation for political action.” Love, he writes, “leads to policies that have good moral effects.”
  5. The Democrats embrace a “culture of death” because of their position on abortion.
  6. Mohler did not vote for Trump in 2016, but he will in 2020 because Trump has delivered on his pro-life promises (read: abortion). He goes as far to say that “Donald Trump has been the most effective and consequential pro-life president of the modern age.”
  7. Religious liberty is under threat
  8. The group “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden” is “insanity.”
  9. Not voting for Donald Trump is the same thing as voting for Joe Biden
  10. Black people have the right to vote for Democrats, but he does not share their values.

Michael Wear, an evangelical Christian and former member of the Obama White House, responds:

Al Mohler once again makes his case for Trump. Looks like he felt he needed to repeat what he's said before in light of Piper's post last week. I won't comment on all of it now, but here's one observation: https://t.co/Uwle548yFF

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

After Mohler summarizes evangelical support for Trump as a "worldview" issue, and says he "quickly loses respect" for pro-lifers who support Biden, he takes a different approach to Black Christians who vote Democratic…

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

He doesn't agree with them, he says, but they have "historical reasons" so they're still brothers and sisters in Christ. Mohler doesn't consider those reasons in his redundant apologetic for Trump. They have their reasons, we have ours, seems to be his line.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

This is Mohler's Christian worldview applied to 2020. 2500 words on abortion, religious freedom & LGBT issues…all in service of justifying support for a man whose life has undermined evangelical convictions on these issues & whose politics are a disaster for them long-term.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

And after multiple paragraphs dismissing white evangelicals who support Biden, his big olive branch is to tell Black Christians that he still considers them Christians because their vote is for "historical reasons."

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

Mohler does not consider that those historical reasons might apply to everyone. That he, too, might consider the historical reasons that would motivate so many pro-life, pro-religious freedom Black Christians to support Biden as reasons for him too.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

He certainly can't fathom that these "historical reasons" might motivate many white evangelicals in this election. They're betraying their tribe, so they don't even get Mohler's affirmation of Christian brotherhood.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

With all respect, Mohler's argument does not reflect a full, robust Christian worldview applied to this election. If it did, he'd name out loud those areas of Trump's policies where he disagrees, those "historical reasons," and say "in light of all this, I still support Trump."

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

While he criticizes Pro-life Evangelicals for Biden, they did what he is unwilling to do. He lies in this post when he says they "fail to concede" a Biden Administration will advance policies they disagree with on the issues Mohler cares about. In fact, they do so explicitly.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

What Mohler falsely accuses them of not doing, he is unwilling to do himself. At least in this post. At least when he's making the case for Trump, and arguing it's "beyond his moral imagination" to vote for Biden, before patronizingly making an exception for Black Christians.

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

That's all I have to say about this post. This election is in eight days. There's going to be a lot of dumb things said over this next week. Christians must think Christianly when they vote, but we ought to be hesitant before making the way we vote a matter of faithfulness. /end/

— Michael Wear (@MichaelRWear) October 26, 2020

By the way, if you want to understand the “historical reasons” Wear is talking about here I would encourage you to read Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. (I know, I know, this is blatant self-promotion. But give me a break–I may only have one more week of relevance with this book! 🙂 )

Filed Under: Way of Improvement Tagged With: abortion, Al Mohler, Albert Mohler, evangelicals and politics, Joe Biden

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