Moore has spoken out against the display of the Confederate flag ; in 2015 , two days after the Charleston church shooting ( in which nine black churchgoers were murdered in an apparent hate crime ) , Moore wrote : " The cross and the Confederate flag can not co-exist without one setting the other on fire . White Christians , let 's listen to our African-American brothers and sisters . Let 's care not just about our own history , but also about our shared history with them . " In 2015 , during the Syrian refugee crisis , Moore wrote an op-ed in the '' Washington Post '' calling upon evangelical Christians to support refugee resettlement . Moore criticized those who " demagogue the issue " and wrote : " evangelical Christians can not be the people who turn our back on our mission field . We should be the ones calling the rest of the world to remember the image of God and inalienable human dignity , of persecuted people whether Christian , Jewish , Muslim or Yazidi , especially those fleeing from genocidal Islamic terrorists . " Moore wrote that security and compassion are compatible . In a subsequent interview , Moore sharply criticized leading Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz , stating that Trump 's proposal to shut down mosques in the U.S. was a threat to religious liberty and that Cruz 's proposal to impose a religious test for refugees would " penalize innocent women and children who are fleeing from murderous barbarians simply because they 're not Christians . " In 2016 , Moore became a leading Trump critic , saying that in a presidential election between Trump and Hillary Clinton , Christians should vote for " a conservative independent or third-party candidate . " Moore stated that he could not support the former because he " stirs up racial animosity " and could not support the latter for her support of abortion rights . Writing in the '' National Review '' in January 2016 , Moore wrote that a Trump presidency would endanger the goals of the Manhattan Declaration ; criticized Trump 's involvement in the casino industry and past support for abortion rights ; and argued that " Trump 's vitriolic — and often racist and sexist — language about immigrants , women , the disabled , and others ought to concern anyone who believes that all persons , not just the ' winners ' of the moment , are created in God 's image . " Moore condemned the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville , Virginia
Charleston church shooting
Charleston church shooting
Russell D. Moore