
Christianity Today
Christianity Today, also referred to as CT Magazine, is an evangelical Christian magazine founded by the late Billy Graham in 1956. It is one of the largest evangelical Christian publications in the United States, and has been referred to as evangelicalism’s “flagship” publication by The Washington Post and a “mainstream evangelical magazine” by The New York Times.
Upon its founding, Graham said that he wanted to "plant the evangelical flag in the middle-of-the-road, taking the conservative theological position but a definite liberal approach to social problems."
In 2023, the magazine says its mission is “To elevate the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God.” Christianity Today promises to “deliver an exceptional experience that is biblically rooted and beautifully orthodox, globally engaged and thoughtfully diverse, exquisitely crafted and surprisingly creative, always inspired by a love for Christ and his church.”
Previously, Christianity Today supported the impeachments of both Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican President Donald Trump, whom outgoing Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli described as "profoundly immoral" in a 2019 editorial.
For the first time in history, a former (and possibly future) president of the United States is now a convicted felon. A jury found that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star, with whom he had an affair, in order to keep the story from hurting his 2016 presidential campaign. If only President Trump could have seen the reaction from many white evangelicals to his sexual crimes and misdemeanors, he could have saved some money.
Pundits are probably right that this conviction—like all the revelations of the past almost-decade—will have little effect on the actual election. At this point, people know who they are supporting or opposing—and it’s hard to imagine many who didn’t know all along. The implications, though, are moral, not just legal or political, and on that ground, we should ask whether the most politicized evangelicals should actually love Donald Trump more.
One might reasonably ask how white evangelicals could possibly love Trump more. The most visible evangelical supporters of the former president have been willing, since at least 2016, to wave away criticisms of his character, from the Access Hollywood tapes onward. Many of these voices defended the former president as fit for public leadership, even after a jury found him liable for doing just what he bragged about in those tapes of yesteryear: groping a woman’s genitals against her will. And now this. But all of that is precisely what I mean by asking about love.