94 Evangelical Leaders Publish Letter Condemning Trump

Nearly 100 leaders of the Evangelical Christian community have signed a letter urging their voting bloc to reject GOP nominee Donald Trump.

On Oct. 6, a letter signed by 94 Evangelical leaders was posted on Change.Org.

The sizeable collection of reverends, bishops and community leaders wrote that “we must respond when evangelicalism becomes dangerously identified with one particular candidate whose statements, practice, personal morality, and ideology risk damaging our witness to the gospel before the watching world.”

The letter stresses that the Evangelical community, which makes up roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population, is often misrepresented as solely white, elderly and male.

“The media’s narrow labels of our community perpetuate stereotypes, ignore our diversity, and fail to accurately represent views expressed by the full body of evangelical Christians,” the letter states.

The collection of evangelical leaders slammed Trump for promoting the birther conspiracy against President Barack Obama, alienating racial minorities and failing to disassociate himself from white supremacist movements.

“Trump has steadily refused to clearly and aggressively confront extremist voices and movements of white supremacy, some of whom now call him their ‘champion,’ and has therefore helped to take the dangerous fringes of white nationalism in America to the mainstream of politics,” the letter continues.

Evangelical voters were initially skeptical of Trump but have largely rallied to his side after he won the Republican nomination.

Pew Research Center surveys have found that while only 44 percent of white evangelical Republicans supported Trump in April, that number grew to 94 percent percent by June, according to FiveThirtyEight.

The business mogul’s selection of Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, who is a protestant evangelical, as his running mate has helped solidify his support among the crucial voting bloc, according to the Associated Press.

In their letter, the 94 evangelical leaders stress that regardless of his platform, Trump’s rhetoric and personal lifestyle should make him unacceptable in their community.

“Mr. Trump has fueled white American nationalism with xenophobic appeals and religious intolerance at the expense of gospel values, democratic principles, and important international relationships,” the letter said.

The signers of the letter were not endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but instead were urging their fellow voters to not cast their ballot for Trump.

“We… simply will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately, fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote.”

Associated Press via CBS News, Change.org, FiveThirtyEight / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr