In a book review for the conservative Bulwark, longtime evangelical gadfly Ralph Reed was taken to task for attempting to make the case for the re-election of Donald Trump saying it would be what God wants -- a claim columnist Caroline Bryant called "laughable."
Responding to Reed's book, "For God and Country: The Christian Case for Trump," Bryant stated that the author -- one of the founders of the Christian Coalition which has close ties to the Republican party -- twisted Biblical passages to back up his argument, completely ignoring the type of person Donald Trump is and has been his entire life.
With Reed making the case for Trump by stating "Trump made conservative campaign promises and kept them," with regard to ostensibly being pro-life and appointing conservative judges, Bryant claimed the evangelical author was being "dangerously simplistic" when it comes to what Christians expect of a president.
"Writing an entire book about why Christians should put their faith in Trump, however, suggests that Reed doesn’t believe his own message. For every line of good theology he offers, he has more than double the amount of poor theology as he twists the Bible to suit his political purposes. Reed says that the argument that Christians should refuse to vote for Trump because of his past misdeeds 'removes the heart of the Gospel message from our civic discourse—the grace and forgiveness available to us all through faith in Christ,'" she wrote. "Reed’s message might bear more weight if not for Trump’s proclamation that he didn’t need to ask for forgiveness (“I mean, why do I have to repent? Why do I have to ask for forgiveness if you are not making mistakes?”). Additionally, Reed’s strained attempts to convince Christians to forgive Trump’s sexual misconduct run in tandem with Reed’s and Trump’s clear lack of forgiveness for Hillary Clinton’s attempts to justify her husband’s wrongdoing."
Calling Reed's "rosy-eyed view of Trump’s courtship of the evangelical movement .... laughable," she continued. "A closer look at how well Trump has done on those issues, however, might make one pause. Take the pro-life movement. Reed is quick to highlight Trump’s anti-abortion rhetoric in multiple presidential debates and point to the fact that Trump was the first president to ever attend the March for Life in person. But previous Republican presidents also had admirable records defending unborn life without all of Trump’s other disturbing moral baggage. And what about the rest of Trump’s record? When it comes to the lives of the elderly during COVID-19, for example, Trump’s actions show the limits of his caring about the most vulnerable among us."
With that, Bryant who describes herself as a Christian, suggested churchgoers skip Reed's counsel and look into their own hearts.
"This November, we Christians should ask ourselves whether Trump, a man who has proved himself to be morally repugnant and racially divisive, is the candidate who best represents our values. This is not necessarily the 'Christian case for Joe Biden," she advised. "By allying ourselves with Trump, however, we risk handing away our moral credibility for what may turn out to be little more than a mess of pottage."
You can read the whole critique here.