Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reacts to cheers from supporters as he departs a campaign rally in Lakeland, Fla., on Oct. 12, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Mike Segar *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-GRUDEM-OPED, originally transmitted on Oct. 13, 2016.
(RNS) Tobin Grant has accused me of lying. He says Wayne Grudem “now claims he was ignorant of Trump’s past.” But that is itself an untrue statement. I never claimed I was “ignorant” of Trump’s past.
READ: Is Wayne Grudem lying about not knowing Donald Trump’s past?
Grant objects to what I wrote most recently on Oct. 9 in an article posted to Townhall:
“Some may criticize me for not discovering this offensive material earlier, and I think they are right. I did not take the time to investigate earlier allegations in detail, and I now wish I had done so. If I had read or heard some of these materials earlier, I would not have written as positively as I did about Donald Trump.”
That is true, and I stand by it. I did know earlier that he had boasted about being unfaithful in marriage, and it was on that basis I thought he was an unwise choice in the primaries. That is why, back in February, I publicly spoke against him and said his adultery meant Republicans shouldn’t vote for him.
But once he won the nomination and the choice was between him and Hillary Clinton, I still thought I could hold my nose and vote for him. So I said in my July 28 Trump article, “He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages,” but I still thought we had to vote for him.
I never said I was ignorant of Trump’s past.
Some Christians may think they could never vote for anyone who has committed past adultery, but that was not my decision in July. I was against him in the primaries partly because of his boasts about adultery, but I thought we had to support him in the general election, in spite of his adultery. There’s nothing untruthful or inconsistent about that.
But then the new video showed a candid self-confession of repeated sexual assaults against women, and also a specific confession of attempts to seduce a specific woman.
Then I read some of the Howard Stern material and saw Trump give approval when Stern was talking about Trump’s own daughter Ivanka as a sex object.
These specific details of a continuing pattern of sexual sin and sexual assaults against women went beyond what I knew about Trump’s vague boasting about past adultery, and made me decide that I had to withdraw my earlier article. So what I said in my Oct. 9 article is truthful: “If I had read or heard some of these materials earlier, I would not have written as positively as I did about Donald Trump.” That is exactly true.
In fact, there are probably thousands of Christians who went through exactly the same thought process as I did:
- They opposed Trump because of his moral character in the primaries.
- They reluctantly supported him, in spite of his moral character, after the Republican convention in July.
- After the video was released on Oct. 7, they learned more details about his moral character and decided they could no longer support him.
I don’t think that anyone who followed that thought process is claiming that they were “ignorant of Trump’s past,” but they would say, “I learned more details and therefore I changed my mind.”
What I wrote about my thinking about Trump in both articles was completely truthful. Tobin Grant’s article is a distorted record of what I said, and it is a false accusation.
(Wayne Grudem is research professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix)
What I wrote was completely truthful
(RNS) The details of a continuing pattern of sexual sin and sexual assaults against women went beyond what I knew about Trump's vague boasting about past adultery.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reacts to cheers from supporters as he departs a campaign rally in Lakeland, Fla., on Oct. 12, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Mike Segar *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-GRUDEM-OPED, originally transmitted on Oct. 13, 2016.
(RNS) Tobin Grant has accused me of lying. He says Wayne Grudem “now claims he was ignorant of Trump’s past.” But that is itself an untrue statement. I never claimed I was “ignorant” of Trump’s past.
READ: Is Wayne Grudem lying about not knowing Donald Trump’s past?
Grant objects to what I wrote most recently on Oct. 9 in an article posted to Townhall:
“Some may criticize me for not discovering this offensive material earlier, and I think they are right. I did not take the time to investigate earlier allegations in detail, and I now wish I had done so. If I had read or heard some of these materials earlier, I would not have written as positively as I did about Donald Trump.”
That is true, and I stand by it. I did know earlier that he had boasted about being unfaithful in marriage, and it was on that basis I thought he was an unwise choice in the primaries. That is why, back in February, I publicly spoke against him and said his adultery meant Republicans shouldn’t vote for him.
But once he won the nomination and the choice was between him and Hillary Clinton, I still thought I could hold my nose and vote for him. So I said in my July 28 Trump article, “He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages,” but I still thought we had to vote for him.
I never said I was ignorant of Trump’s past.
Some Christians may think they could never vote for anyone who has committed past adultery, but that was not my decision in July. I was against him in the primaries partly because of his boasts about adultery, but I thought we had to support him in the general election, in spite of his adultery. There’s nothing untruthful or inconsistent about that.
But then the new video showed a candid self-confession of repeated sexual assaults against women, and also a specific confession of attempts to seduce a specific woman.
Then I read some of the Howard Stern material and saw Trump give approval when Stern was talking about Trump’s own daughter Ivanka as a sex object.
These specific details of a continuing pattern of sexual sin and sexual assaults against women went beyond what I knew about Trump’s vague boasting about past adultery, and made me decide that I had to withdraw my earlier article. So what I said in my Oct. 9 article is truthful: “If I had read or heard some of these materials earlier, I would not have written as positively as I did about Donald Trump.” That is exactly true.
In fact, there are probably thousands of Christians who went through exactly the same thought process as I did:
I don’t think that anyone who followed that thought process is claiming that they were “ignorant of Trump’s past,” but they would say, “I learned more details and therefore I changed my mind.”
What I wrote about my thinking about Trump in both articles was completely truthful. Tobin Grant’s article is a distorted record of what I said, and it is a false accusation.
(Wayne Grudem is research professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix)
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