The editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine that has been publishing since 1956, on Friday defended writing an editorial that calls for President Trump’s removal from office.
“It’s not like I have any personal animus against the president,” Mark Galli told NPR. “But he does display characteristics that I think as a leader of a great nation like the United States are deeply problematic.”
The editorial hit like a bombshell when it was published online Thursday with the headline “Trump should be removed from office,” due to the prominence of the magazine and the fact that Trump has enjoyed consistent support from the majority of evangelicals during his time in office.
In March, 78 percent of evangelicals in a survey said they approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the Pew Research Center.
“To be the most charitable to my brothers and sisters, I do think they are passionately concerned about pro-life issues,” Galli told NPR, noting that most Christians are also “passionately concerned about religious freedom issues.”
“So I will give them that, in that sense that Trump has done a very good job of defending those causes in our minds,” he said. “But we’ve gotten to a point where those things no longer balance the scale.”
He went on to compare Trump to an abusive husband who might be a “good provider” but “needs to leave the house.”
Galli noted that in 1998 the magazine criticized President Clinton for “unsavory dealings and immoral acts” and said his editorial about Trump was “very consistent” with that.
Trump “slanders people, he tells us, he mischaracterizes people, he outright lies, he says things that are verbally abusive to others,” he said.
“These are all moral problems,” he continued. “You don’t have to even be a religious person to recognize that they’re moral problems.”
The editorial evoked condemnation from a number of evangelical leaders.
Franklin Graham, the son of magazine founder Billy Graham, told The Washington Post his father “would’ve been very embarrassed that the magazine he started would call for something like this when there are no crimes committed.”
“I disagree with him on that,” Galli told NPR of Graham. “That’s all I can say.”
Trump has also attacked the magazine over the editorial, tweeting on Friday that it is “far left” and “has been doing poorly.”
“Nobody considers us as far-left,” Galli told the Post, following Trump’s tweets. “We don’t comment on larger national issues except when they rise to a level of moral influence. He’s characterizing our magazine of political passion and that’s not who we are.”
Galli wrote the editorial days before he plans to step down as editor-in-chief of the magazine in January.