The Patriot Post® · WaPost Columnist Calls Pro-Trump Evangelicals 'Slimy Political Operatives'
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson delivered a scathing attack on evangelicals who support President Trump, calling them “slimy political operatives, not moral leaders.”
CBS “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennon asked Gerson to weigh in on evangelical leaders who still support the president in spite of the alleged Stormy Daniels scandal.
“Well, they are acting like, you know, slimy political operatives, not moral leaders,” Gerson declared. “They are essentially saying, in order to get benefits for themselves, in a certain way — they talk about religious liberty and other issues — but to get benefits for themselves, they are willing to wink at Stormy Daniels and wink at misogyny and wink at nativism.”
Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, also penned a blistering cover story for The Atlantic, shaming evangelicals who backed the president.
“Gerson should be ashamed for being a lackey for the Left,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.”
Perkins was among those evangelical leaders called out by Gerson.
“Religious freedom is being restored, pro-life policies being advanced, the infrastructure of leftist government being dismantled,” Perkins said. “That’s why Gerson and the Left are so enraged.”
Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas and a spiritual advisor to the president, said Gerson was trying to shame pro-Trump Christians.
“We are supporting this president because of his policies,” Jeffress said Monday on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.” “Evangelicals still believe in the commandment, ‘Thou shall not have sex with a porn star.’ We haven’t compromised that belief.”
Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, said evangelicals “feel culturally and politically besieged” and “feel like their government has been weaponized against them.”
He said that Gerson’s argument missed a key issue — “it was a binary choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.”
“Most church-going evangelicals did not support Donald Trump until after he was the nominee,” Land said on the radio show.
“Is Donald Trump my ideal of a presidential candidate? No. Is he my ideal of a president? No. But unless Hillary is running against Lucifer, I’m going to choose the other person.”
Land said the reality facing Christian voters in 2016 was crystal clear.
“In a fallen, sinful world, sometimes we are forced to make a choice between the lesser evil and the greater evil. And if we do not choose to help the lesser evil triumph over the greater evil, we become morally responsible for the greater evil prevailing,” Land said.
“I’d be more than happy to argue all day that Mrs. Clinton is the greater evil. However immoral you may think Donald Trump is, Mrs. Clinton is more immoral,” he added.
And yet, many Never Trump Christians believe the moral high ground would’ve been a Hillary Clinton, pro-choice presidency.