"Moral Sewage" —Russell Moore, a Southern Baptist Convention leader, on Trumpism
On May 8, 2016, on the CBS show Face the Nation, Russell D. Moore, who was then a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), said that "the Donald Trump phenomenon" is "reality television moral sewage."1 Moore was then also the dean of the Baptist Theological Seminary's School of Theology and is now the Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, published on May 6, 2016, Moore also wrote that "the man on the throne in heaven" is "probably not all that impressed by chants of 'Make America great again.'"2
Yet in Donald Trump's self-appraisal, he is morally perfect, with no need to seek God's forgiveness. "Why do I have to repent or seek God's forgiveness," Trump asked an Iowa audience of evangelicals in 2015, "if I am not making mistakes?"3 Yet Trump described occasional attendance at church services—"I drink my little wine" and "have my little cracker."4 Trump's sister, Maryann Trump Barry, related, however, that "the only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there."5
- CBS News, "Face the Nation transcripts, May 8, 2016: Clinton," May 8, 2016, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-may-8-2016-clinton/; Christianity Today, "Russell Moore: Trump, Clinton both represent 'reality TV moral sewage,'" May 9, 2016, https://www.christiantoday.com/article/russell.moore.trump.clinton.both.represent.reality.tv.moral.sewage/85670.htm.
- The New York Times, "Russell Moore, Opinion: A White Church No More," May 6, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/opinion/a-white-church-no-more.html.
- David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, (New York: Melville House, 2016), p. 31
- CNN, Trump: Drink My Little Wine, Have My Little Cracker, August 13, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zvtl5emEEI.
- The New York Times, "Mary Trump's Book Accuses the President of Embracing 'Cheating as a Way of Life,'" July 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/us/politics/mary-trump-book.html.
