Watch Gary Lane explain Trump's B grade during his response to a question from Cheddar host Baker Machado.
If asked to rate the president's performance, why would most informed evangelicals give President Trump a B?
After all, 80% of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump and he's worked hard to maintain their approval since taking the oath of office just over 100 days ago. So, what's the big deal, why not an A?
First, let's take a look at some successes that would win the president a good grade from most evangelicals:
--Mexico City. He reinstated Ronald Reagan's policy. It's a rule that prohibits federal funding for non-government organizations that provide counseling or referral for abortions outside of the United States.
Rating A
--Betsy DeVos. Trump nominated her to be Secretary of Education. She'll push alternative education options that evangelicals like, such as charter schools and vouchers so kids can opt out of poorly run schools and have a chance to acquire a better education. The president and Devos would like to see education shifted to states and local school boards—those governments that are closest to the students.
Rating A
--Dr. Ben Carson. A top choice for many evangelicals in the 2016 presidential race, Dr. Carson was nominated and confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The former director of pediatric surgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital leads HUD after auditors discovered $500-billion dollars in accounting errors made during the Obama presidency.
Rating A
--Immigration and persecuted Syrian and Iraqi Christians. President Trump said they would have top priority for entry into the United States and he even put that in writing in his first executive order on immigration. But two federal courts overturned his order. When his legal team drafted a new one, the mandate was left out. That's because the courts determined (incorrectly many constitutionalists believe) that the order favored one religious group over another. The president tried, but the courts shut him down—at least for now.
Rating B
--Israel. Less than a month into his presidency, Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. The president took steps to restore the close U.S./Israeli friendship that suffered under President Obama. Like Mr. Obama before him, President Trump criticized Israeli construction of new so-called settlements. Candidate Trump promised to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but has yet to do so.
Rating B
--Neil Gorsuch. The BIG enchilada was the appointment and successful confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court justice. Evangelical Christians loved this pick because Gorsuch sided with the Green family and Hobby Lobby over the federal government in a big religious rights case in which the Obama administration imposed massive penalties on the Christian company for refusing to provide employees with abortion drugs. Trump promised to appoint a jurist in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia and he kept that promise.
Rating A+
Now a look at where Trump has come up short:
--The Johnson Amendment. This was an amendment to the federal tax code proposed in 1954 by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson. It prohibits non-profit, 501 (c) (3) organizations from engaging in political activities. That means if a church or religious group were to endorse or act in support of a candidate for political office, they would risk losing their tax exemption. Many pastors, churches, and religious non-profits have argued the law should be abolished because it denies them the right to free speech and expression. Donald Trump campaigned against the Johnson Amendment, but he has yet to take aggressive action to push for its repeal.
Rating C
--International Religious Freedom. More than one hundred days into the Trump presidency, evangelical Christians still await the president's pick for U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. The ambassador plays an important role at the Office of Religious Freedom at the U.S. State Department. Appointing someone early on in his presidency would send a message to evangelicals and religious rights violators around the world that the president gives top priority to defending religious liberties worldwide. He has yet to demonstrate this commitment.
Rating F
--Planned Parenthood Funding. The president signed legislation nullifying President Obama's rule restricting states and localities from withholding federal funding from family planning services, but his first spending law maintained federal funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood. True, Democrats threatened a government shutdown if the budget extension measure had excluded the PP funding, but the president appeared to back off from his promise to remove PP from the government dole. Will he make a move when the budget is considered next fall?
Rating C
So, President Trump gets a final grade of B.
He has done plenty to keep the evangelical base happy, but he needs to do much more to demonstrate his support and commitment to persecuted Christians through immigration and global religious freedom advocacy.
How would you rate the president on these issues? Let us know.