Former Reagan advisor: ‘Trump-supporting evangelicals discredit Christianity more than atheists’

Speaking to CNN this Saturday, former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and “lifelong evangelical” Peter Wehner slammed evangelical supporters of President Trump, saying that they see him as a champion of their cause despite his moral failings — many of which are in direct contrast to the principles evangelicals claim to uphold.

“The bottom line is that [Trump] will fight for them,” Wehner said. “Not that he himself is of Christian faith. Not even he himself is a manifestation of Christian virtues, but they feel like they’re involved in an existential struggle against a malicious enemy that they consider to be the American Left. And Trump will try and vanquish that enemy.”

According to Wehner, evangelicals think Trump is bringing “a gun to a cultural knife fight,” and that he “hates the same people that they hate. And that he’ll employ means that’ll get it done.”

Although Wehner has been a fixture in past GOP administrations, he’s been a vocal Trump critic.

“I think it’s been tremendously discrediting to the Christian faith,” Wehner continued. “I think it’s shown to a watching world a tremendous amount of hypocrisy.”

“After all, this ‘character counts’ and ‘personal integrity’ and political leadership was central to what a lot of evangelicals argued when Bill Clinton was president,” he added. “And now that it’s Donald Trump, they’ve decided to push it aside, which means for them, that reality is a means to an end, not an end. It was something to be used as a political weapon.”

“I think a lot of these white evangelical leaders are doing more to hurt Christianity than the so-called New Atheists ever could,” he concluded.

Watch the full interview below, via CNN:

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.