Editor-in-chief of Christianity Today: ‘The biggest loser in the Alabama election is the Christian faith’

According to an explosive op-ed in Christianity Today written by the publication’s editor-in-chief, the loser in the special election for Alabama’s Senate wasn’t Republicans or Democrats, it was the Christian faith.

“No matter the outcome of today’s special election in Alabama for a coveted US Senate seat, there is already one loser: Christian faith,” Mark Galli wrote in the piece published on Tuesday just before Roy Moore’s loss. “When it comes to either matters of life and death or personal commitments of the human heart, no one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianity’s integrity is severely tarnished.”

Galli goes on to explain that the moral crisis facing Christianity began festering long before Roy Moore entered the public conversation — “ever since a core of strident conservative Christians began to cheer for Donald Trump without qualification and a chorus of other believers decried that support as immoral.”

During the 2016 election, exit polls showed that white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 80-16 percent. The statistics confirmed what many believed to be the inherent hypocrisy of the religious demographic which claims to espouse “family values” — principles that contradict Trump’s alleged history as a serial adulterer. Additionally, comments from Trump’s past where he disparaged women and spoke about them in sexually graphic terms, including the infamous Access Hollywood video where he openly admitted to sexually assaulting women, only seemed to entrench evangelical support for him further.

The phenomenon was similar with Roy Moore. While his detestable views on minority groups like the LGBT community and Muslims expectedly received little pushback from evangelicals, credible accusations that he sexually preyed on teenagers (some as young as 14-years-old) when he was in his 30s only seemed to strengthen his support among the evangelicals who backed him.

“The Christian leaders who have excused, ignored, or justified his unscrupulous behavior and his indecent rhetoric have only given credence to their critics who accuse them of hypocrisy,” Galli writes. “Meanwhile the easy willingness of moderate and progressive Christians to cast aspersions on their conservative brothers and sisters has made many wonder about our claim that Jesus Christ can bring diverse people together as no other can.”

“The problem with many Christian conservatives is this: They believe they can help the country become godly again by electing people whose godliness is seriously questioned by the very people they want to influence.”

You can read Mark Galli’s full op-ed here.

Featured image via screen grab (YouTube)

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.