{"id":3283,"date":"2019-07-22T11:21:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T16:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2019-07-22T11:21:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T16:21:28","slug":"gagnon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/gagnon","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon: Christianity Today\u2019s Lack of a Sense of Scale and Balance on Trump\u2019s Tweets Continues Unabated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr.\nRobert A. J. Gagnon<\/a> is Professor of Theology at Houston\nBaptist University\u2019s School of Christian Thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NeverTrumpism never ends with Christianity\nToday<\/em>. Here\nmy friend Timothy Dalrymple<\/a>, writing only his second CT<\/em> piece\nsince becoming CT<\/em>\u2019s new President and CEO, makes his attack on\nEvangelical Trump voters for being \u201ccaptive\u201d to the Republican Party and not\nacting as persons \u201caccountable to a higher authority.\u201d The charge? Not calling\nout Trump\u2019s \u201cugly and demeaning statements at people of color\u201d (article tagged\n\u201cRacism\u201d), namely, about Radical Left Congresswomen who use \u201crace\u201d much like a\nbudding arsonist shouting \u201cFire\u201d in a building whether or not a fire exists\n(and sometimes which the budding arsonist sets). Not a good start for Timothy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To think of all the more important things\nthat he could have written about than a tweet, a tweet, whether in agreement\nwith Trump\u2019s pro-life agenda and his focus on free speech and religious\nliberty, court appointments, or general restraint in advancing the \u201cLGBTQ\u201d\nagenda; or in disagreement with his first-ever salute to \u201cGay Pride Month\u201d last\nmonth; or in criticism of racist-sounding comments and the abuse of the\nrace-card by the \u201cSquad\u201d and the Democratic-controlled media; or in warning\nabout the dire consequences that would follow from enacting the Democrat\u2019s\n\u201cEquality Act\u201d into law. With the leadership team of CT<\/em>, it is not a\ncase of praising Trump when he does good and criticizing him when he does bad.\nIt is rather a case of unrelenting criticism of Trump and those who vote for\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aggregate of Trump\u2019s clumsy, allegedly\n\u201cracist\u201d tweets since his 2016 campaign really don\u2019t amount to much, though the\nhard-left Democratic Party screams otherwise at the top of their collective\nlungs to great effect. Trump\u2019s tweets are merely an instrument in the hands of\na race-baiting left-wing media that uses the \u2018trumped-up\u2019 charge of racism to\naccomplish hard-left policy objectives and win elections. Timothy\u2019s article\ncontributes to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Trump\u2019s recent comments were so racist,\nwe might have expected him to tell an entire racial group to leave America, not\na few radical leftists who cry \u201cracist\u201d at the drop of a hat and magnify every\nill in this country beyond what it is, all for the sake of power acquisition.\nWhere is the claim in his tweet that \u201cpeople of color\u201d are inferior to White\nAmericans or not made in God\u2019s image? Where is the attack on Arabs, Latinos,\nand Blacks whose families recently came to this country grateful for the\nopportunities afforded them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nice little sleight of hand Timothy\nrefers to Trump\u2019s \u201cugly and demeaning statements at people of color,\u201d\nintimating that the attack is on their \u201ccolor\u201d rather than on their exaggerated\ncritiques of America and on their own inverse racism. There\u2019s a big difference\nbetween attacking individuals who are persons of color and attacking the color\nitself. Rather than clarify the distinction Timothy writes in such a way as to\nobscure that distinction. He refers to Trump\u2019s \u201cattacks on \u2018them,\u2019\u201d identifying\n\u201cthem\u201d as all people of color, which is a misrepresentation of the content of\nthe tweet. Indeed, Timothy never even attempts an argument. He simply\ninsinuates that the remarks are attacks on race and states that \u201cpeople of\ncolor\u201d are \u201csuffering unjustly\u201d (!) from Trump\u2019s tweet. This is irresponsible\njournalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real objective here is to make it\nimpossible to vote for Trump on the grounds that only a racist would vote for a\nracist. In the meantime, they can point to no policy of Trump\u2019s that promotes a\nracist agenda. Not one. Compare that to Democratic ideology about abortion,\nLGBTQ immorality, and the severe curtailments of the freedoms of speech and\nreligion (through mandatory speech and celebration of immorality), all of which\nhave real policy teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One can add up all of Trump\u2019s bad tweets\nand they still wouldn\u2019t be morally equivalent to a single act of dismemberment\nof a viable baby, or a single firing or non-hiring of a person for being\ncritical of \u201cgay marriage,\u201d or a single obscene \u201cDrag Queen Story Hour\u201d\ncorrupting the minds of little children. Taking a shot at Evangelical Trump\nvoters for not piling on Trump beyond the outrageous excesses of the Left\u2019s\nmanipulation of his comment for political ends looks to readers like just\nanother effort on the part of CT<\/em> to kowtow to the Left\u2019s scolding like\nmarionette puppets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember the CT<\/em> piece that\ncharged Evangelical voters for Obama, Hillary, or any of the current crop of\nextreme left-wing candidates with being irresponsible \u201ccourt prophets\u201d who are\n\u201ccaptive to a particular Party\u201d and not acting as though \u201caccountable to a\nhigher authority\u201d? I don\u2019t remember it either. This seems to me to be quite an\nimbalanced oversight on the part of the CT<\/em> leadership. For these\npoliticians were (are) not merely issuing oblique tweets<\/em>. They were\n(are) making direct pronouncements about policies<\/em> involving the\npromotion of baby-killing, LGBTQ immorality, and the severe curtailment of free\nspeech and the free exercise of religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do remember when the executive editor of\nCT<\/em>, Andy Crouch, insinuated that even Christians who voted for Trump\n\u201creluctantly,\u201d in hope of good Supreme Court appointments, were flirting\nwith idolatry<\/a> (\u201cSpeak Truth to Trump: Evangelicals, of\nall people, should not be silent about Donald Trump\u2019s blatant immorality,\u201d Oct.\n10, 2016). I don\u2019t remember any CT<\/em> article saying the same about\nEvangelicals voting for Clinton or Obama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do remember when CT<\/em>\npublished articles in 2017<\/a> contending that Evangelicals who\nsupported Republican Roy Moore over Democrat Doug Jones were \u201cfringe\nevangelical[s]\u201d who \u201csold their soul,\u201d \u201cchanged their view of ethics,\u201d worked\nfor the destruction (not \u201csalvation\u201d) of Evangelicalism, were guilty of\n\u201chypocrisy,\u201d and had \u201csabotage[d] \u2026 the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u201d I don\u2019t\nremember CT<\/em> saying anything comparable to Evangelicals who voted for pro-abortion,\npro-\u201dLGBT,\u201d anti-religious-liberty, pro-activist-judge Doug Jones. Indeed, in\none piece the latter were praised for \u201csaving Evangelicalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us would probably have a mild\nheart attack if CT<\/em> actually wrote a piece slamming the silence of\nEvangelicals who voted for Democrats with being \u201ccourt prophets\u201d \u201ccaptive\u201d to\nthe Democratic Party. Why wouldn\u2019t they do such a thing, since Democrats\nconsider first-order business the passing of the so-called \u201cEquality Act,\u201d nothing\nless than the greatest abridgment of speech and religious freedom in the\nhistory of the Republic. Comparing the entire collection of Trump tweets with\nthat danger is just plain silly. It indicates a loss of any sense of scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t look like the leadership at CT<\/em>\nis protecting racial minorities, since Trump isn\u2019t attacking an entire race. It\nlooks like they are trying to look good in the eyes of the Left and to\ndistinguish themselves from \u201cunenlightened\u201d Evangelicals in order to gain\nentrance at some mythical table. They appear to be straining at gnats and\nswallowing camels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to think that Timothy\u2019s article immediately\nfollowed upon the piece by Jeff Christopherson of SBC\u2019s North American Mission\nBoard who made even greater cheap shots at Evangelical Trump voters (\u201cPartisan\nEvangelicals and the Burning of the Mission Field<\/a>,\u201d\nJuly 15). This followed other previous NeverTrump articles, including these two\nby Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli: \u201cThe\nHeart of the Evangelical Crisis<\/a>\u201d (May 15) and \u201cRepenting\nof Identity Politics<\/a>\u201d (Apr. 22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No sense of scale and no sense of balance. That\u2019s what it looks like to most Evangelicals outside elitist contexts who have been beaten down with the same fare from CT<\/em> for four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Used by permission of Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon<\/a>, Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University. Retrieved from his personal Facebook Page: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/robert.a.gagnon.56\/posts\/10162281539655045<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon is Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University\u2019s School of Christian Thought The NeverTrumpism never ends with Christianity Today. Here my friend Timothy Dalrymple, writing only his second CT piece since becoming CT\u2019s new President and CEO, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}