An editor at a Christian news outlet quit his job this week after the site published an editorial defending President Trump amid his impeachment.
Christian Post editor Napp Nazworth stepped down after the news source posted a pro-Trump editorial, tweeting that the publication made a “good business decision” but one that’s “bad for Democracy and bad for the Gospel” by publishing the op-ed.
Nazworth’s resignation comes less than a week after popular evangelical news outlet Christianity Today posted an anti-Trump editorial blasting the president over his impeachment and calling on evangelical Christians to denounce the president.
“We’ve never sounded like that before. That’s not the types of positions we take in the past,” Nazworth said, adding that his former employer’s position on impeachment sounds like “some odd sort of conspiratorial thinking.”
He also likened the Christian news website to the far-right website Breitbart, which is supportive of the President and his policies.
Nazworth brought up how the editors had all worked together previously on an anti-Trump editorial in 2016 with the headline “Donald Trump is a scam.”
“We all agreed back then and understood who Donald Trump was,” Nazworth said. “I didn’t change my mind about Donald Trump, but some of the other editors did.”
“I’m worried now that without me there, that, you know it will no longer be a place that presents the alternative view to team Trump and the evangelicals who support him,” Nazworth said.
He added that he didn’t want to leave.
“I warned them. If you go down this road and join team Trump, then that will destroy the reputation of The Christian Post,” Nazworth said, adding, “We had reached the impasse and I really had no other choice but to leave.”
Trump was impeached in mid-December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, stemming from his involvement in the Ukraine scandal.
The Christian Post responded with an editorial of their own, calling Christianity Today‘s anti-Trump editorial “elitist” and bashing the publication for not supporting the president.
The war of words between the publications signifies a growing schism between American Christians over whether to support Trump.
A reported 81 percent of evangelical Christians voted for Trump in the 2016 election, but Nazworth’s own recent analysis shows evangelical Christians are evenly split on their support for the president.
Nazworth said he worked for the Christian Post for eight and a half years and had always navigated disagreements between editors, but said the editorial crossed the line.
“They’ve chosen to represent a narrow (and shrinking) slice of Christianity,” Nazworth wrote. “That might be a good business decision, short term at least. But it’s bad for Democracy, and bad for the Gospel. It means there will be one more place where readers can go for bias confirmation, but one less place where readers can go to exercise their brains on diversity of thought.”
Trump fanned the flames last Thursday when he fired back at Christianity Today for their editorial calling on readers to support his removal.
“No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close, You’ll not get anything from those Dems on stage. I won’t be reading ET again!” Trump tweeted, seemingly confusing the name of the publication in his tweet.