Michael Cromartie: Church’s Ambassador to Washington Succumbs to Cancer
Michael Cromartie, a leader in Washington who helped bridge the gap between Christians and a sometimes hostile media, died from cancer at the age of 67.Cromartie’s passing leaves a hole in many who deemed him, as Carl Cannon, Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics did, an “indispensable man.”
“Mike Cromartie did more to ensure that American political journalism is imbued with religious tolerance, biblical literacy, historical insight, and an ecumenical spirit than any person alive,” Cannon wrote. “No one is a close second.”
He brought faith leaders and journalists together for nearly two decades at the Faith Angle Forum, something Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge called “one of the most pleasant, as well as one of the most instructive, experiences in journalism.”
Via Christianity Today:
Michael Cromartie, a Washington networker who helped rebrand America’s image of Christian political engagement, has died of cancer at age 67.
The news of his death was reported Monday on Twitter and confirmed by colleagues at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), the DC-based conservative think tank where he served for more than 30 years.
Cromartie brought Christian thought leaders and secular journalists under the same roof at the Faith Angle Forum, held every year since 1999. Through his work as EPPC vice president, he evoked theologians and philosophers as he advocated for thoughtful engagement in public policy and civil discourse.
Cromartie, though critical of the President, helped ease concerns of religious conservatives who were leery of Donald Trump’s candidacy, assuring them that he had surrounded himself with ‘rock-solid conservatives’ like Vice President Mike Pence.
“For religious conservatives in general who have some doubt about Mr. Trump’s character, better to surround himself with somebody who’s a rock-solid social conservative,” he announced last July.
Cromartie grounded voters as well, explaining that the power of the presidency is limited and that change in the wake of the Obama years would require everyone’s participation.
“It’s always too much to expect that the Kingdom of God will come on Air Force 1,” he said.
