An evangelist pastor criticized religious leaders who are “trading their moral core” by supporting the Trump administration solely due to their stance on abortion.
Doug Pagitt, a Minneapolis-based pastor and executive director of Vote Common Good, wrote in USA Today Sunday that white evangelicals are blindly supporting Trump and the GOP-led Congress.
He argued they will not stray in their support for the president because they are motivated by the issue of abortion.
{mosads}“The Republican Party has used the issue of abortion as a tool to manipulate religious leaders across the country,” he wrote. “These leaders’ highest concern is self-preservation. They fear God’s wrath and want impunity.”
“But in their fear, they have become blinded and desensitized to all other injustices and inhumanities: children separated from parents, refugees refused safety, women denigrated and abused, and health care denied to the vulnerable,” he continued.
Conservative leaders are making a moral trade, Pagitt argued.
“Anti-abortion laws and court decisions in exchange for basic human dignity,” he wrote.
Pagitt wrote that the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the “zero tolerance” immigration policy which previously separated thousands of migrant families should have been reason enough for evangelicals to speak out against Trump.
“These are not positions informed by the teachings of Jesus Christ — to the contrary, they are antithetical to what Jesus preached,” he wrote.
Pagitt argued that Christian faith should not determine what party someone is affiliated with.
“My faith does not call me to be Republican or Democrat,” he wrote. “My faith calls me to love God and love my neighbor as I love myself. I am called to vote for the common good, for justice and humanity.”
He warned Republicans who have faith not to blindly support the GOP.
“With the midterms just a couple of weeks away, we face a critical juncture in our country: restore some power to those who would govern with compassion, or continue ceding moral ground for the sake of abortion. Will we continue to vote out of fear of God’s wrath, or will we turn a corner and vote to spread God’s love for all people?” Pagitt wrote.