Dwight McKissic and Al Mohler disagree They have spoken out on many issues before (e.g. the role of women in the church), but this year they are the two most prominent Southern Baptist leaders to support opposing candidates in the US presidential election.

On Monday, Mohler, a highly influential seminary president in Kentucky, publicly approved For Christians of conservative faith, the only viable candidate is Donald Trump. The other day, McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and the most visible Black pastor in the denomination, publicly approved Kamala Harris.

Dwight McKissic

In his column published by MSNBC, McKissic says he can’t vote for Trump because the former president doesn’t bear good fruit and can’t even pass a background check.

“Despite everything we know about Trump — his numerous adulterous affairs, his numerous felony convictions, his race-baiting, his violent rhetoric, his repeated lies, his inability to resemble Jesus or his church in any way — there are people who warn evangelicals not to abandon the ‘party of their faith’ for a Democrat,” he says. “There is a scripture in the seventh chapter of the book of Matthew that says that a tree that does not produce good fruit must be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I think that’s how evangelicals should treat today’s Republican Party.”

Looking at the ballot choice from another perspective, the pastor says he has hired many people for various jobs at the church over the years and would not hire Trump for any of them.

“I think of my vote in the same way as the hiring decision,” he says. “And under no circumstances will I hire Donald Trump.”

McKissic explains himself He saw his values ​​as an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, biblical conservative reflected in the Republican Party. But he warns that the GOP has abandoned those values ​​in deference to Trump.

“I still believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, and I feel as passionate as ever about preserving life in the womb,” she writes. “Democrats have not changed their stance on these two issues either. But Republicans have changed. I don’t even know the Republican Party anymore. This year, for example, the GOP’s platform abandoned its longstanding call for a national abortion ban and removed language that said marriage was ‘between one man and one woman and is the foundation of a free society.'”

Moreover, “The party I know and love would never have chosen the adulterous, childish, habitual liar and convicted criminal Donald Trump as its candidate.”

This year McKissic says: will vote for “the candidate who possesses the character and competence and the capacity and breadth to hold respect and high regard for all who are created in the image of God.”

Harris has this. Trump doesn’t do that, he says.

“It is sickening to see people who say they read and believe the same Bible not only refuse to condemn Trump but also support his candidacy,” McKissic writes.

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