Despite being aligned on virtually every single culture war issue, the evangelical support for Donald Trump never really made sense. On top of his well-known penchant for slathering his penthouse in gold, the former president is a known philanderer to the point where he’s been legally found guilty of sexual abuse. Not exactly the kind of things that Jesus was big on, and yet, Trump has remained the candidate of choice for most evangelicals.
However, that support may be waning. According to former Southern Baptist Convention president Russell Moore, there are cracks forming in Trump’s evangelical base. While promoting his new book, Moore told Semafor that he is regularly hearing from evangelicals who have grown increasingly concerned with how Trump is tarnishing their faith:
I wrote the book because I’m hearing every day from evangelical Christians who are exhausted and almost in despair over the state of American Christianity. They know something has gone terribly wrong but they are losing hope that anything could be different. At the same time, I get asked by non-Christians, as a man said to me as recently as yesterday- “What the hell is wrong with you people.” An evangelical America in crisis isn’t good for anybody.
While refusing to endorse or denounce the Republican candidates challenging Trump, Moore called the former president a “unique threat, both to American institutions and to the church’s witness.”
While Moore didn’t go deeper into his concern over Trump, his new book, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, will reportedly grapple with Trump’s impact on the evangelical world.
“While the witness of the church before a watching world is diminished beyond recognition, congregations are torn apart over Donald Trump, Christian nationalism, racial injustice, sexual predation, disgraced leaders, and covered-up scandals,” the description for Moore’s book reads. “Left behind are millions of believers who counted on the church to be a place of belonging and hope.”