Conference call explores election consequences on evangelicals overseas.
Some evangelical leaders around the globe worry that the recent US presidential election has damaged Christian moral witness, and will fuel discord abroad.
In a conference call Tuesday, a week after Donald Trump’s win, more than 70 ministry presidents, pastors, and scholars spoke with concern as they discussed the ramifications of the American election on the global church.
The call was organized by Doug Birdsall, a former top leader of the Lausanne Movement and the American Bible Society, as part of his new Civilitas Group. Participants included evangelical representatives from Asia, Europe, and South America, as well as a diverse span of US church leaders.
“One of the things that America was stood for in the past was moral leadership and character. Over the past few decades, it has slowly dissipated,” said Hwa Yung, longtime bishop of the Methodist Church in Malaysia. “In this election you have produced two candidates, both of whom are deeply flawed in character. The question people around the world are asking is, ‘Is this what America is today?’ The election has done great damage to your moral standing in the eyes of the world.”
The group of global leaders noted that, from a distance, American politics can get conflated with Christian priorities, given that a solid majority of white American evangelicals elected the new president into office.
“There is massive disappointment within Christian communities in most of central and eastern Europe, [and] concern about the loss of credibility of Christian witness—especially the credibility of the evangelicals,” said Peter Kuzmic, an evangelical scholar in Croatia. “If the president-elect represents Christian values, …
