Pastor Decries Evangelicals for Making Abortion Their Key Issue and Reason for Supporting Trump

By C Barnett --
22 Oct 2018 --

Pastor Pagitt criticized the evangelicals for their tilt towards Trump.

Doug Pagitt, an evangelical Christian pastor, sharply criticized religious leaders who he says trade their respective moral cores through their support of the Trump administration only due to the latter’s stance regarding abortion.[/tweetit] The Minneapolis pastor claimed white evangelicals are blind supporters of Republican Congress and the Trump administration.

Pastor Decries Evangelicals for Making Abortion Their Key Issue and Reason for Supporting Trump[/tweetthis]

Pastor Pagitt wrote in USA Today yesterday that many evangelical Christians are taught from a young age that abortion should be the main issue on which the evangelical vote should hinge. A large number of evangelicals want to make abortion an illegal procedure. He pointed out that simply making abortion a crime will not reduce its frequency. The move will only endanger the health of mothers.

White evangelicals were the principal target of Pagitt. He expressed pain at the loss of morality of white evangelicals who he said repeat the GOP line. The pastor lamented that it is inconceivable to him as to how the Republicans could nominate Brett Kavanaugh to be a Supreme Court Judge. He said the GOP now espouse values which are at complete odds with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Pagitt alleged the motive of self-preservation now drives Republican Party leaders. He said, “They fear God’s wrath and want impunity.” He continued on to say in their quest to avoid God’s fear, the leaders have become desensitized to other inhumanities and injustices like children being separated from their parents and refugees turned away. Pagitt also mentioned the denial of health care to poor people and women being abused to get home the point he wanted to make. He claimed conservative leaders continued to make a moral trade where fundamental human dignity is traded for court decisions and anti-abortion laws.

Wow, this op-ed in @usatoday by pastor Doug Pagitt is fire: "Religious leaders have given up moral ground" by supporting Trump/GOP and are "complicit in this administration's war on the vulnerable." https://t.co/ltkWKX0GJt
— Abigail De Kosnik (@De_Kosnik) October 22, 2018

The preacher challenged commonly held conservative beliefs like faith being linked with a particular political alignment. He wrote that his faith does not instruct him to be a Democrat or a Republican. According to Pagitt, his Christian faith asks him to love his neighbor and his God as he likes himself. He likes to vote for common good, humanity, and justice. The pastor’s stance is important as a Pew Research Center study revealed that Trump won the presidency on getting a massive 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Pagitt holds the executive director post of the Vote Common Good organization.