Regarding the CT editorial:
While I agree that Donald Trump is a liar, a moral reprobate, a bully, etc., and that it is a shame that evangelicals by and large have badly compromised their witness by embracing him uncritically (and not without reason: the Democrats and their agenda, protecting the unborn, conservative Supreme Court justices, support for religious liberty, a good economy, etc.), I do not agree with CT wading into partisan politics in this way. This is not supposed to be CT’s function.
The editorial is muddled in its reasoning and wording. For example, with the impeachment process still underway, it calls for Mr. Trump’s removal but also says that whether he is impeached or voted out of office is a matter of “prudential judgment.” Then why publish this now? Given the timing of the editorial, most people will fail to see the distinction and will assume CT is calling for impeachment and removal. Many of Mr. Trump’s sins listed in the editorial, by the way, have nothing to do with the articles of impeachment passed by the House.
It also says its stance is predicated on “loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments”–citing Trump’s oft-vile Twitter feed as evidence. I do believe Mr. Trump is not the first president to have seriously violated multiple parts of the Decalogue, nor will he be the last. CT here, much like Mr. Trump’s supporters, claims to possess knowledge of the mind of the Creator. Perhaps the magazine should rather say, with Abraham Lincoln, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Whatever the president’s flaws, sins, and even good points (and there are a few), the editorial is an exercise in virtue-signalling and will change no minds. It will simply harden the suspicions of conservative Christians that CT is a liberal house organ for the Democratic Party. This development will be almost impossible to undo.
I am making no comment here about whether I think the president should be impeached and removed, but there are a lot of things that should happen in this world that are neither practical nor wise.
