Le Lézard
Subjects: REL, AVO

Global Center for Religious Research Open Letter to Evangelicals: Divorce Yourselves from Trump-Supporting Leaders


DENVER, March 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the bombshell Christianity Today article calling for President Trump to be removed from office because of his "grossly immoral character" and "ethical incompetence," evangelicalism has openly split into near-total civil war. While an outpouring of agreement came in for Christianity Today, there were also expressions of outrage from Trump supporters. What has become evident is that many evangelical leaders will engage in cult-like rationalizations all for the sake of political expediency.

This abuse of power has prompted the international academic society, Global Center for Religious Research, to issue "An Open Letter to Evangelicals." What is significant about this letter is that the list of signatories are career philosophers of religion, bishops, pastors, priests, chaplains, rabbis, theologians, and other scholars, many of whom are current evangelical leaders themselves. What's more, the open letter continues to amass signatures from more faith leaders and academics on the letter's website.

The letter explains that it is now a moral necessity to repudiate the evangelical institutions and leaders that have entangled themselves with Mr. Trump. It states, in part,

Just as the underground Confessional Church separated itself from the German Evangelical church in the 1930s, by way of the Barmen Declaration..., we call on evangelicals to end the cult-like determination to ignore, excuse, and justify Mr. Trump's blatant and obvious depravity....Until such time as those evangelical institutions and leaders disentangle themselves from the corrupting power and privilege that their complicity with Mr. Trump is providing them, we call upon Christians of good conscience to disentangle themselves.

The belief is that remaining silent in the face of wrongdoing is, in fact, equivalent to being an accomplice to Mr. Trump's many legal and ethical crimes. Church history is stained with numerous atrocities because Christians have refused to speak out against their leaders. Just as evangelical Christians have called on Islamic leaders to denounce acts of terrorism by fellow Muslims, so too are these high-ranking faith leaders and scholars calling on evangelicals to do the same with their own community. The statement from GCRR is clear: divorce yourself from corrupt Trump-supporting evangelical leaders and their institutions.

About GCRR

Global Center for Religious Research is an academic society and publisher comprised of the world's leading scholars on religion. GCRR publishes the latest scientific, historical, and philosophical work on religion.

Visit gcrr.org.

Media contact:
Darren Slade
[email protected] 
303-912-5573

SOURCE Global Center for Religious Research



News published on and distributed by: