The Christian Post is an influential Christian paper that lost its politics editor after he learned of plans to publish a pro-Trump editorial.
Napp Nazworth told TIME he’d decided to resign because “I was told by our managing editor that they were going in the direction of being a ‘pro-Trump publication,’ and that they were [going] to publish an editorial that I could not support. So it was sort of a mutual decision …we can no longer work together basically.”
“They’ve chosen to represent a narrow (and shrinking) slice of Christianity. That might be a good business decision, short term at least. But … it’s bad for Democracy, and bad for the Gospel,” Nazworth tweeted. “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.”
I'm saddened by what happened for many reasons. I've been with CP for over 8.5 years, made many friendships, and had lots of exciting opportunities along the way. …
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
When the editors had disagreements, we would work through them, letting those discussions and debates inform and improve our coverage. Now, CP has chosen to go in a different direction. Like so many other media companies, they've chosen to silo themselves. …
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
… 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. {end}
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) December 24, 2019
Nazworth had worked for The Post for over eight years and told TIME he would have been happy to publish the pro-Trump piece as an op-ed, saying “As the politics editor of The Christian Post I have always welcomed diverse voices. I’ve published many op-eds I disagreed with.” But publishing an editorial, which would mean the piece was the official position of the publication, led him to resign.
The Post ran the piece in question on December 23, accusing the infamous Christianity Today editorial of “Christian elitism.”
“You may think Trump is a narcissistic, morally challenged, belligerent cad who has no business being president — except for the pesky constitutional fact that over 60 million American voters elected him to it,” read the piece, written by Post John Grano and Richard Land, the Post‘s executive editor and senior managing editor, respectively.
“CT’s disdainful, dismissive, elitist posture toward their fellow Christians may well do far more long-term damage to American Christianity and its witness than any current prudential support for President Trump will ever cause,” the piece concluded.
It’s a sharp turn of tone from the Christian Post’s pre-election editorial in February of 2016 when they wrote “We the senior editors of The Christian Post encourage our readers to back away from Donald Trump. As the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world, we feel compelled by our moral responsibility to our readers to make clear that Donald Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country.”
As for Nazworth, he says that “People don’t realize there is a pretty big contingent [of evangelicals] that don’t support [Trump] as well.”
Nazworth said he felt Christianity Today was too hasty in calling for Trump to be removed, saying he’s curious to see the outcome of the Senate hearing. “The evidence is overwhelming,” he said. “But there is a reason to have the trial.”
