I haven’t written anything on this site for a long time, as there’s so much good stuff out there that’s much better than I can produce–plus, for the most part, those other writers are getting paid! But I wanted to do something brief today, sparked by my listening to two podcasts just in the last week or so. One was on the Matt K. Lewis podcast in an interview with Napp Nazworth, an editor at the Christian Post who put his money where his mouth is and resigned from said publication over the whole Christianity Today flap. If you’re not up on that issue, I’ll just say that CT published a solid editorial laying out why Donald Trump deserves to be removed from office. Nazworth explains why he resigned rather than be the editor in charge of publishing CP‘s rebuttal. But then he goes on to say some pretty scathing things (and deservedly so) about Wayne Grudem, whose flip-flops on Trump since 2016 have been legendary. Here’s the history of Dr. Grudem’s viewpoints:
- First said that Donald Trump was a morally good choice.
- Retracted that endorsement after the Access Hollywood recordings were released and said Trump should resign from the race;
- For some strange reason, Trump did not resign.
- Grudem then retracted his retraction.
- Now he is saying that Donald Trump should not be impeached; he’s a good President and showing the “fruits of the Spirit” because of those good results. (I think the idea that Federal judges are a fruit of the Spirit would be news to the Apostle Paul.)
As Lewis and Nazworth point out, Grudem has now completely undermined his credibility as a conservative theologian. Ten years from now, when (please God) Donald Trump is out of office and off the scene, who’s going to trust anything that Grudem has to say? No one who’s been paying attention. Grudem seems to think that it’s all great if we’re getting good results (the old “ends justify the mean” routine), but for the most part those results have to do with personal benefit. Hey, the economy is doing great, so Trump is great! As Nazworth points out, one of the main, if not the main, reason why the economy is going gangbusters is that the Trump administration cut taxes without cutting spending. We are enjoying that sugar high, leaving our children and grandchildren to pay the price.
Okay. I knew the Grudem story pretty well, although the “fruit of the Spirit” thingy was news to me. Now, though, and I’m sorely grieved to say this, Dr. Al Mohler, the President of Southern Seminary and a man I’ve heard preach a number of times at our former church in D.C., has come out lambasting the CT editorial. He’d taken off the two weeks of the holiday season from his daily podcast “The Briefing,” so this Monday, Jan. 5, was his first chance to address the issue. Does he stand with the idea that character matters? Does he support CT? No he does not. I was listening to him while I was doing my exercises and as the direction of his reasoning became clear I exclaimed, “Oh, Al!” I just couldn’t believe it. As has been pointed out, the CT editorial was only saying what other Southern Baptist leaders have said, including Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Is Moore’s head heading for the chopping block?
So “The Briefing” is no longer on my favorites list in the podcast app Stitcher. To be honest, I had gotten to the point where I often did not listen to much of any given episode. Dr. Mohler, for instance, was a-poundin’ the pulpit and a-sayin’ that Drag Queen Story Hour was a sign of eminent cultural collapse. As David French said in a podcast at the time, much as he respects Dr. Mohler, in this situation the man is just wrong. He’s majoring on the minors, focusing on the molehills, etc.
I just don’t understand it. Do you?