But she said something about her life was off-kilter. She went to church two to three times each weekend and played guitar in the choir. Growing up in the ‘60s, Garcia said she had a traditionally paramount role as the "oldest son" in a devoutly Roman Catholic Latino family. She still has the worn black rosary that her grandmother gave her when Garcia was just five years old. One of Garcia’s earliest memories is of her grandmother kneeling on the cold kitchen floor of her Colorado farm, praying the rosary in Spanish while the voice of Francisco “Paco” Sanchez buzzed through the radio. ‘I had never felt comfortable in my own skin’ Garcia, who delivered her first sermon at Westview earlier this month, is the first known transgender Latina to serve as a pastor within the 4 million-strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - an unanticipated position for someone who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and left religion entirely for nearly 20 years. “Being trans is secondary.” Pastor Nicole Garcia had her first service on Dec. That’s why I’m the pastor here,” Garcia,who turned 60 Thursday, told NBC News. When Trump asks for our prayers, he shouldn’t forget that.“Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church. Many Christians are far more than embarrassed by the evangelical embrace of this corrupt administration. But Galli’s message is powerful because it begs the question of exactly who should be embarrassed - and by what. Indeed, Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham - a prominent pastor and Trump supporter - said as much, telling the New York Times that the editorial “is not going to change anyone’s mind about Trump” and arguing that his father “would be embarrassed” by it. As a recent article I wrote demonstrates, Galli’s editorial is unlikely to lead white evangelicals to demonstrably change course, because his message will be cast as apostate-proof of his heresy to Trump. Support for you has become a Rorscharch test for adherence to Christian ideals: Some see that support as mandatory others as disqualifying. In a fallen world, God allows bad things - and bad presidents - to happen.Īnd as proof of that, consider how you have divided not just America, but American Christians. Yes, we pray for you, President Trump, but we do not believe you to be The Chosen One. We have been saying a PRAYER that the damage you have done to the moral fiber of this nation can be mended. We have been saying a PRAYER that the support you have received from powerful evangelical leaders will not permanently taint our Christian witness. We have been saying a PRAYER that your arrogance and narcissism will not plunge us into war, that your willful aggression against science and facts will not lead to the destruction of God’s creation within our children’s lifetimes. We have been saying a PRAYER that the divisions you have sown and the hatred you have propagated will not live on after you. President, you should know that many, many of us have. The implication was that rather than #PrayForTrump, we Christians should #PrayForImpeachment.Īnd, Mr. “If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?” Galli asked. Yet this was just the sort of come-to-Jesus moment that many had been hoping (and yes, praying) for - proof that evangelicals’ unholy alliance with Trump was just that. The editorial may have looked like a stunning reversal, coming as it did from within the evangelical community and considering how over 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016 and 99 percent of white evangelical Republicans oppose impeachment now. Galli called Trump “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused” and - noting his “Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy” - went on to state that “None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.” In a post so seismic that it crashed the site, Mark Galli, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today (the evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham in 1956), argued forcefully in favor of removing Trump from office. On Thursday, however, this assumption proved gratifyingly wrong. history to be impeached, Trump took to Twitter to call upon Americans to “Say a PRAYER!” His assumption, of course, was that if one were the praying type, then one would naturally come to his celestial defense in this moment of, as Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk put it, Christ-like persecution-a moment so (supposedly) unjust that “Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this President.” On Wednesday, as it became clear that by day’s end he would become the third president in U.S.
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