Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore Calling on Evangelicals to Stop Trump

Veronica Neffinger | iBelieve Contributor | Updated: Apr 29, 2016

Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore Calling on Evangelicals to Stop Trump

Russell Moore, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, is leading the evangelical charge against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

Slate.com reports that in 2013, Moore wrote in his book Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel that Christians need to be cautious not to equate their political views with their fatih and the Gospel. When Christians do this, Moore writes, “we end up with a public witness in which Mormon talk-show hosts”—ahem, Glenn Beck—“and serially-monogamous casino magnates ... are welcomed into our ranks, regardless of what violence they do to the gospel.”

Although Moore wrote this before Donald Trump was running for president, Slate writer Ruth Graham notes the striking relevance to the current political climate.

Moore has consistently denounced Trump and the evangelical movement which supports him.

“My concern is not so much about the presidential election,” Moore told Graham. “I’m more concerned about the witness of evangelical Christianity, which I see compromised in the apologies from some Christian leaders for Trump and his behavior.”

Moore, along with other Southern Baptist leaders such as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and Denny Burk, a well-known professor at the seminary’s undergraduate school, have been calling on evangelicals to rethink their allegiance to Trump and what he stands for.

“Only a society trained by pornography could be drawn to a man so misogynistic. This is pagan patriarchy,” Moore tweeted in March.

In April, Moore shared a tweet comparing the rhetoric of three presidential candidates, the last one Trump’s: 

"4 score and 7 years ago, our fathers brought forth…”

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

"I'm, like, a very smart person."

Although many who identify as Christian have voiced support for Trump, ChristianityToday.com notes that those who are regular church attendees and hold deep commitment to their faith actually tend not to support Trump.

Moore says that evangelicals must strive to view themselves not as the Moral Majority, but as a “prophetic minority.”

Publication date: April 29, 2016



Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore Calling on Evangelicals to Stop Trump