But I’m going to forge ahead what what I had planned to post for the first part of this week, which is an examination of the moral cave-in by respectable conservative writers as they try to excuse their support for the Republican nominee.
I don’t need to address the water carriers for Trump who have hitched their wagons to his star, among them Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Their motivations are clear. The people who concern me are those who have a real influence in saner conservative circles, and in some cases in evangelical ones. So today I’m looking at Wayne Grudem, who wrote an article explaining “Why Voting for Trump Is a Morally Good Choice” the week after the Republican convention. I have to say that my heart sank as I read his words. Grudem is considered by many within conservative evangelical circles to be an authority on sound doctrine; his Systematic Theology is widely used in conservative seminaries. He has written extensively on biblical gender roles; I have used his material in my own writing on that subject. How can he say that Trump is a “good candidate with flaws”? But this attitude is no different from that displayed at the now-infamous closed-door meeting back in June between Trump and an assortment of evangelical leaders or the one displayed at the Values Voter Summit earlier last month.
So I challenge you to read Grudem’s article carefully. Then my next challenge would be for you to read at least one of the rebuttal articles I have posted. A couple of these authors make it clear that they will vote for neither candidate, a choice I do not agree with but which I can respect. I will repeat once again, however, that to refuse to choose is to choose.
Here they are:
“Theologian Wayne Grudem Is Wrong about Trump Being a Morally Good Choice” by Madison Peace, The Federalist, Aug. 8, 2016
“Why Wayne Grudem Is Wrong about Trump” by Philip Swicegood, The Resurgent, Aug. 1, 2016.
“Wayne Grudem, Evangelicals, and the Trump Option” by Thomas S. Kidd, The Gospel Coalition, Aug. 2, 2016.
“Compare Wayne Grudem’s Comments about Rudy Giuliani to His Trump Endorsement” by Jonathan Merritt, Religion News Service, Aug. 12, 2016.