The war of words between Russell Moore and Donald Trump had been building for months when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unloaded this week on the head of the South Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has suggested his fellow Southern Baptist incited the reaction from Trump:
“Russell Moore has launched numerous vitriolic attacks not only against Trump’s, policies but about his own character and integrity. No one should be surprised that Trump would respond to such attacks.
“This is unprecedented what Russell Moore has done, and I believe there are many people who are not sympathetic with his views toward Trump. While Moore is a respected leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, he absolutely does not speak for all Southern Baptists even as I don’t speak for all Southern Baptists. There are no Southern Baptist Popes.”
In the Time article, it is suggested that “deep divisions” exist within evangelicalism. It also invoked the controversy surrounding the resignation of Mark DeMoss from the Board of Trustees at Liberty University, quoting the former advisor to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign.
“Scorched Earth name-calling, insulting and demagoguing does not seem to me to be the way to build a winning general election coalition,” he said. “Russell Moore thoughtfully represents views and attitudes of millions of people of faith in the country; it is one thing to disagree with him, another thing altogether to be dismissive of him.”
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