White evangelicals once admitted they were wrong about Nixon. Will Trump come next?
For The Washington Post, Anja-Maria Bassimir and Elesha J. Coffman draw parallels between the Richard Nixon and Donald Trump presidencies, noting that both received strong support from white evangelical Christians. Bassimir and Coffman write, “While [Billy] Graham enjoyed private chats in the Nixon White House and urged his fellow citizens to rally around the flag at Honor America Day, another prominent evangelical, then-Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.), warned that a bad graft between religion and politics was turning gangrenous.” Evangelical support for Nixon gradually began to erode as more Christian leaders spoke against him, often using the language of repentance and sin. Bassimir and Coffman write, “Some evangelical leaders are again calling out disgraceful conduct in Washington and in their own ranks.”