NeverTrump evangelicals are 'spineless morons' who can't admit they're wrong: Robert Jeffress

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Thursday, February 14, 2019

Dallas megachurch pastor and prominent Donald Trump supporter Robert Jeffress issued harsh words about evangelicals who oppose the president while appearing on a conservative radio show Wednesday.

Jeffress, who's pastor of the 12,000-member First Baptist Dallas, appeared on The Todd Starnes Radio Show Wednesday morning and didn’t hold back when asked about Never Trump evangelicals.

“Let me say this as charitably as I can,” Jeffress said. “These ‘Never Trump’ evangelicals are morons. They are absolutely spineless morons and they cannot admit that they were wrong.”

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Jeffress, who was one of the first evangelical leaders to voice his support for Trump during the 2016 presidential primaries, is known for being outspoken in his support of the president and is no stranger to having his remarks shared in headlines across the internet. However, his remarks Wednesday might be his strongest condemnation yet of the cohort within evangelicalism that has staunchly opposed Trump since the 2016 presidential primaries.

Jeffress told Starnes, a Christian conservative columnist regularly published on Fox News, that he doesn’t understand why Never Trump evangelicals can’t acknowledge the positive things that Trump has done, especially when it comes to passing pro-life policies.

“This is an issue of life and death. This is so black and white, so much about good versus evil. I don’t get it,” Jeffress explained. “It really goes to the core of who we are as a country and what kind of a country we have in the future, and if we can’t get this issue of life right — I just don’t know where we’re going to go down the road.”

Jeffress continued by pointing out that abortion advocates are still pushing the legal limit of abortion with controversial late-term bills in states like New York and Virginia.

“What you’re seeing that [New York Gov.] Andrew Cuomo and others have proposed it’s not only sinful and wrong, it is barbaric,” Jeffress said. “It is the sign of what Romans 1 in the New Testament calls a depraved mind that would allow that to happen.”

Jeffress stressed that Christians must stand up to defend the unborn.

“We cannot afford to be like German Christians who, in the rise of the evil reign of Adolf Hitler, just remained neutered. They remained silent. And you saw what happened there,” Jeffress said. “I think there’s a similar wave of godlessness that is rising in our country right now and we must push back against that tide.”

Jeffress’ remarks to Starnes this week isn't the first time that he's called out Never Trump evangelicals.

"We support this president's conservative positions and what is happening right now vindicates our decision to choose Donald Trump as president,” Jeffress said last June on Fox News. “And I believe the Never Trump movement, the little sliver of it still in evangelicalism, is going to be shut up forever."

On Monday, conservative writer Erick Erickson, a former Never Trumper, announced that he will endorse Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for re-election in 2020.

Jeffress responded.

“Remember when @EWErickson questioned whether I was ‘going to heaven’ because of my support for President @realDonaldTrump?” Jeffress asked in a tweet Tuesday. “Welcome aboard the #TrumpTrain, Eric! Better late than never.”

Jeffress’ comments on Starnes’ show drew a strong response from Alan Cross, a Baptist pastor and missional strategist with the Montgomery Baptist Association. Cross is the author of the 2014 book When Heaven and Earth Collide: Racism, Southern Evangelicals, and the Better Way of Jesus.

“Robert Jeffress calls anti-Trump Christians, ‘spineless morons,’ Or, form of ‘Raca,’ which is Aramaic for ‘fool,’” Cross wrote in a tweet. “Greek word for fool = moros, where we get ‘moron.’ JESUS: ‘whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.’ Matthew 5:22. @robertjeffress should repent.”

Paul Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, an ordained Baptist minister and senior vice president and editor of Voices on Auburn Seminary in New York City, wrote on Twitter that "being called a fool (for being a Christian who does not support trump) by pastor Jeffress is a welcomed confirmation that all is well with my soul."