US Christian Post editor quits over paper’s pro-Trump stance

An editor at The Christian Post, Napp Nazworth has resigned from the publication after it aligned itself with President Donald Trump, sign of the schism within the US evangelical community.

Last week another evangelical newspaper, Christianity Today, slammed Trump as “ profoundly immoral” and called for his removal from office, triggering rebuke within the evangelical community and some children of Reverend Billy Graham, founder of the paper.

Journalist Napp Nazworth, who has worked for The Christian Post website since 2011 and sits on the website’s editorial board as politics editor, tweeted: “Today, rather abruptly, I was forced to make the difficult choice to leave The Christian Post. They decided to publish an editorial that positions them on Team Trump. I can’t be an editor for a publication with that editorial voice.”

Announcement: Today, rather abruptly, I was forced to make the difficult choice to leave The Christian Post. They decided to publish an editorial that positions them on Team Trump. I can't be an editor for a publication with that editorial voice. …

— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019

Trump called Christianity Today “a far-left magazine,” after its attack on him.

In his last analysis published on 22 December, Nazworth debunked the assumption that majority of evangelicals are supporting Trump.

On the contrary, he said evangelical support for President Donald Trump has been overstated.

“In a Thursday tweet, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote that only “17% or so” of evangelicals opposed Trump in 2016. This is incorrect.

“The most often cited number when it comes to evangelical support for Trump is “81%,” which is likely what Falwell had in mind. But that number comes with many caveats: 1) it only includes white evangelicals, 2) it only includes self-identified evangelicals, which means non-churchgoers and people who don’t hold evangelical beliefs could be included, 3) non-voters were not polled and so their numbers are not included in the denominator, and 4) it was based upon exit polls, which are among the least reliable polls.

“Taking all those factors into consideration, as previously explained by The Christian Post in 2018, Trump-supporting evangelicals represent about half, at best, and likely less than half, of all evangelicals”.

“Understanding this, it makes more sense that a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 43% of evangelicals support removing Trump from office.

“Thirty-four percent of evangelicals strongly approve, 9% somewhat approve, 4% somewhat disapprove, and 49% strongly disapprove of removing Trump from office. These numbers additionally show that evangelicals are much more divided on Trump than Falwell and others suggest”.