Southern Baptists turn wrath against leader who called out evangelical Trump voters as hypocrites

An evangelical political leader who spoke out against Donald Trump is facing a backlash from the president-elect's religious right supporters.

Russell Moore, who leads the political arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, bashed Trump and "the old-guard religious right political establishment" who supported him despite "serious moral problems," reported NPR.

Moore wrote a scathing Washington Post column in March saying secular progressives had been proven right about conservative Christians.

“They have implied that the goal of the Religious Right is to cynically use the ‘moral’ to get to the ‘majority,’ not the other way around," Moore wrote. "This year, a group of high-profile old-guard evangelicals has proven these critics right.”

Those religious right leaders -- including Mike Huckabee -- are now attacking Moore, who's president of the Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

"I am utterly stunned that Russell Moore is being paid by Southern Baptists to insult them," Huckabee said.

Some churches and state Baptist organizations are considering withholding funds from Moore's commission until he's removed as president.

"I think Russell Moore has made the error of saying evangelicals who supported Trump are selling out their principles," said Janet Mefferd, a Christian radio broadcaster.

Moore, who shares the same views as conservative Christians against abortion and same-sex marriage, said he did not intend to criticize all Trump voters.

His defenders say the conservative outrage against Moore is another example of the political divide that has grown so sharp that the government can barely function.

"If they succeed in ousting Russell Moore, effectively we have become the Trump Baptist Convention," said Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.