Thursday night, Christianity Today, long known as the “flagship” magazine of American evangelicalism, broke the internet with an editorial arguing for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump from office. The piece, penned by the magazine’s outgoing editor, Mark Galli, implored evangelicals to consider the “unambiguous facts” of the impeachment case against the president, maintaining his actions not only violated the Constitution, but were also “profoundly immoral.”
The reaction — particularly from non-evangelicals — was excited and swift. “Whoa” and “big deal” led links to the piece on Twitter, suggesting that, after Mr. Trump spent four wildly successful years consolidating the support of white evangelicals, the magazine’s lofty stand would finally trigger a fatal exodus by this crucial demographic. The magazine’s website, apparently buckling under the unusual spate of traffic, was down for part of the evening, but that did not stop the avalanche of coverage on television, news sites and social media. “This is mainstream evangelical Christianity leadership,” remarked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, reading segments of the “amazing” editorial on the air.
[Read more: Christianity Today’s call for Trump’s ouster roils the evangelical waters]
For many outsiders, Christianity Today seems to speak for millions of evangelicals. After all, the magazine was founded by Billy Graham, the pastor to presidents since Eisenhower. A pro-impeachment editorial would appear to be a game-changer — undermining the seemingly unmovable support for the president among white evangelicals.
That assumption, though, profoundly misapprehends American evangelicalism in the Trump era.
Since his 2016 election, in which 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for him, Mr. Trump continues to enjoy their unwavering loyalty. Three-quarters of white evangelicals approve of his job performance, and 80 percent of them remain opposed to impeaching him.
While many conservative evangelicals respect Christianity Today, it is read by a small slice of them, and is unlikely to make any significant dent in the president’s remarkable popularity. As even Mr. Galli conceded to The Atlantic’s Emma Green, “We speak for moderate, center-right, and center-left evangelicals. The far right — they don’t read us.”
The “far right” to which Mr. Galli referred is actually the dominant force in American evangelicalism, and it is stubbornly in Mr. Trump’s corner. It did not take long after the editorial was published for the president’s staunchest evangelical defenders, including Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, to react.
Writing on Facebook, Mr. Graham reproached the magazine for invoking his father’s name to support its position, maintaining that his father, who died in 2018, had supported Mr. Trump as “the man for this hour in history for our nation.” He even accused the magazine of being “used by the left for their political agenda,” and representing “the elitist liberal wing of evangelicalism” — a smear taken up, not surprisingly, by the president himself in a tweet.
As I reported the same day the editorial was published, Mr. Trump’s evangelical supporters have built a powerful network of political organizations, prayer warriors, televangelists, religious media, mega-churches and voter identification and mobilization efforts — a sprawling spiritual army with multifaceted battalions — that is defending him in the face of impeachment.
In this insular ecosystem, the president is seen as a divinely anointed leader, sent by God to save America at a critical moment in history, when, supporters claim, their religious freedom is under attack by secularists. For these evangelicals, the facts that Mr. Galli pleaded with them to assess are “fake news” planted by “deep state,” and even satanic enemies of the anointed president.
[Read more: Friends of Christianity Today back anti-Trump editorial]
Mr. Trump’s evangelical followers believe he will prevail because their prayers will vanquish the work of his enemies. In a recent conference call for the One Voice Prayer Movement, formed specifically to mobilize prayer warriors for the president, the televangelist Paula White, a top adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunities Initiative, prayed that “any persons, entities, that are aligned against the president” be “exposed and dealt with and overturned by the superior blood of Jesus.”
But Mr. Trump’s support is not just about anointings and prayers. It is also about personnel, policy and law — in other words, a government led by Christians who will undo, for example, advances in L.G.B.T.Q. rights. The Christian right enjoys not just regular and frequent access to the president, but virtual carte blanche on dictating policy, as top ideologues have been placed in cabinet positions and other political appointments in federal agencies.
Ralph Reed, a leading evangelical activist and supporter of Mr. Trump, has boasted to his followers, “There are more Christians serving” in the Trump administration “than all previous presidents combined.”
Mr. Trump’s evangelical defenders may truly believe he is anointed, or they may just relish the unparalleled authority he has granted them. Either way, this actual mainstream of American evangelicalism is not likely to give up on its divine leader, or on its newfound power, no matter what the impeachment proceedings uncover.
Sarah Posner is a reporting fellow at Type Investigations. Her book, “Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump,” will be published in May.