Christian Leaders Criticize Changes
Dr. Ed Stetzer, dean of Talbot School of Theology and editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine, did not address the 2024 Republican Party Platform by name, but said, “I’ve voted for a convictional pro-life candidate in every presidential election since I was allowed to vote. It’s not a political choice, it’s a moral choice. I’ll vote pro-life again this time, because the unborn still matter.”
“A con artist used evangelicals to get elected and when he didn’t need them anymore he wrote them off,” said Joel Rainey, a pastor in West Virginia.
“I am disheartened by what’s happened in the GOP,” said Pastor Clint Pressley, newly-elected president of the SBC. “The GOP platform may be subject to change, but God’s word is not. Southern Baptists ‘contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death’ and will insist that elected officials do the same.”
Mike Cosper, producer of “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast, said, “It’s not like the signs of this trajectory weren’t there. It was always transactional with Trump and pro-lifers, and Trump always hoses those he does business with.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins issued a statement condemning “the choreographed process” by which the platform was adopted as “unbecoming of a party that champions free speech and due process,” noting the irony of the fact that the platform in one place denounces censorship.
“Deprived of the opportunity to discuss amendments to the ‘draft’ platform document, we have submitted a minority report to supplement that campaign’s platform,” Perkins said. His statement concludes, “The right to life transcends other political debates and the interests of any and all political parties and candidates. It is truly the right without which no other right has any meaning.”
ChurchLeaders has reached out to the RNC for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply.
Disclosure: Dr. Ed Stetzer is editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine and provides general editorial input for ChurchLeaders.
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