A prominent English bishop said U.S. “self-styled evangelicals” are giving all evangelicals a bad name with their “uncritical support” for President Donald Trump.
Paul Bayes, bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England, said U.S. evangelical leaders who support Trump are giving the word evangelical a bad connotation, and that their loyalty to Trump is inexcusable since, according to him, it contradicts Christ’s teachings on caring for the destitute and poor, The Guardian reported Thursday.
Bayes told The Guardian that he was grieved that “people who call themselves evangelical in the US seem to be uncritically accepting” of Trump’s policies.
“Some of the things that have been said by religious leaders seem to collude with a system that marginalizes the poor, a system which builds walls instead of bridges, a system which says people on the margins of society should be excluded, a system which says we’re not welcoming people any more into our country,” Bayes said, according to The Guardian.
Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury and principal leader of the Church of England, also criticized Christian support for Trump, saying in November, “No I don’t understand it. I really genuinely do not understand where that is coming from.”
Welby also took a jab at Trump in his Christmas Day sermon, decrying tyrants and “populist leaders that deceive [people].”
Bayes, who spearheaded the movement for acceptance of LGBT individuals in the Church of England, said he believes that Christians are free to support “right-wing populism” wherever they are, but that they must reconcile that support with their Christian faith.
“And if what I believe are the clear teachings of the gospel about love for all, the desire for justice and for making sure marginalized and defenseless people are protected, if it looks as though those teachings are being contradicted, then I think there is a need to say so,” Bayes told The Guardian.
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