Trump lashes out at evangelical magazine that called for his removal

US President Donald Trump lashed out on Friday at a leading evangelical Christian publication that called him "morally lost and confused" and said he should be removed from office.

Trump, in a series of tweets, accused Christianity Today magazine of being "far left" and claimed he was the best White House ally that evangelicals have ever had.

"No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it's not even close," Trump said.

He said Christianity Today "would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President."

In an editorial on Thursday, a day after Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, Christianity Today said it was "necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear."

"The facts in this instance are unambiguous," it said in a reference to Trump's bid to obtain political dirt from Ukraine on his potential 2020 election rival, Democrat Joe Biden.

"The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's political opponents," the magazine said.

"That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral."

Christianity Today was founded by Billy Graham, a prominent Christian evangelist who died last year, but the Graham family is no longer associated with the publication.

Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, is also an influential Christian evangelical leader and a staunch Trump supporter and he denounced Christianity Today on Friday.

"Yes, my father Billy Graham founded Christianity Today; but no, he would not agree with their opinion piece," Graham said in a Facebook post. "In fact, he would be very disappointed.

"My father knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump," Graham said. "He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation."

"For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable," Graham said. "It's obvious that Christianity Today has moved to the left and is representing the elitist liberal wing of evangelicalism."

Another prominent evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr, issued a series of tweets in support of the Republican president. Mark Galli, the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, which has a circulation of around 130,000, rejected Trump's assertion that the magazine was "far left."

"We consider ourselves, and most people consider us, a pretty centrist magazine in the evangelical world," he told CNN.

Christianity Today said Trump "has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019