Trump’s Christian supporters ‘betray the Lord’: former Bush speechwriter

Donald Trump’s Christian supporters are “betraying the Lord,” wrote Peter Wehner, the former president’s speechwriter. George W. Bush.

Former President Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, remains popular among many conservative Christian voters, who are expected to dominate next year’s primary elections. He aligns with these voters on key issues including abortion restrictions and LGBTQ+ rights, winning their support in 2020.

Seventy-six percent of white evangelical voters supported Trump in the 2020 election, even though he lost the election, according to exit polls. The New York Times. Biden won only 24 percent of those voters, but 62 percent of all other voters.

Some Trump critics, however, have questioned his support among religious voters, arguing that his actions sometimes do not align with those values.

Wehner, who also worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, criticized Christian support for Trump in a new opinion piece published in Atlantic Wednesday.

“Far too many Christians in America are not only betraying their humanity; they betray the Lord whom they claim to love and serve,” he wrote.

Trump’s political movement has “reshaped” Christianity in the United States, Wehner wrote, referencing a Public Religion Research Institute poll that found growing support for political violence among Republican voters.

Wehner wrote that Trump’s support among Christians is a “remarkable indictment of those who claim to be followers of Jesus.” He questioned why other Christians continue to “show loyalty” to the former president.

“Many of those celebrate the contributions of Christianity to civilization – upholding the belief that every human being has inherent rights and dignity, celebrating the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the Good Samaritan, and emphasizing a “transcendent order “justice and hope that stands above politics”, in the words of my late friend Michael Gerson, continue to stand behind a man who uses words that resonate My Kampf,” Wehner wrote.

News week contacted the Trump campaign for comment via email.

Others expressed disagreement with his article.

“You can only be dehumanized if you allow it. Stop being gentle, stop thinking words are violence,” posted X user XJMjr_6490.

“Maybe if you felt that way about the ‘deplorables’ or the constant comparisons of Hitler to Bush, McCain, Romney and all the Republicans, because people might think you actually care about rhetoric meant to dehumanize, but alas,” posted @armadillolov.

Wehner is not the only Trump critic to raise questions about his support among conservative Christians.

Dr. Russell Moore, former Southern Baptist Church (SBC) theologian and current editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, told the publication Semafor in July that the former president posed a “unique threat” at church.

“I do not support the candidates, but I believe that Trump poses a unique threat, both to American institutions and to the witness of the Church,” he said.

The Rev. Nathan Empsall, executive director of the Faithful America organization, warned in August that Trump supporters had “hijacked” the name of Jesus.

“The hatred peddled in the misused name of Jesus poses too great a threat to our neighbors, our churches, and democracy itself for Christians to remain silent,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in Religion News Service (RNS).