How are Christian leaders reacting to Trump's firing of FBI Director Comey?

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey was unexpectedly fired by Donald Trump.Reuters

As the political temperature rises, politicians from both sides of the aisle are staking out their positions on James Comey's firing.

President Donald Trump removed the director of the FBI from his position earlier this week sparking a firestorm of reaction in Washington DC and beyond.

Prominent Christian leaders have been having their say too.

With 81 per cent of white evangelicals voting for Trump in November, he retains a significant base of support among that community. Some of their leaders have been the most vociferous in support of Comey's firing this week.

'Comey's fired, which means Trump must be one of the few people in DC that the FBI doesn't have something on,' tweeted former pastor and Governer of Arkansas Mike Hukabee.

Ralph Reed, the veteran Religious Right campaigner, tweeted out a Wall Street Journal article, saying, 'WSJ: Comey's Deserved Dismissal. Comey repeatedly violated DOJ guidelines & politicized the FBI.'

There has been strong concern from other Christian voices, though. Rev Jim Wallis, of Sojourners, a former Obama adviser, tweeted: 'It's completely clear that Comey's firing is a function of Trump's inability to control him and Comey's role in the Russia investigation'.

Writer Rachel Held Evans, meanwhile, didn't hold back, tweeting, 'I don't wake up mad at Trump. I wake up mad at the Republicans/ evangelical enabling his lies, racism, sexual predation, & authoritarianism.'

Christian senators such as Ted Cruz, an evangelical, and Tim Kaine, a Catholic, have also been weighing in.

Meanwhile, it was reported this week that Comey has been recently posting on Twitter under the pseudonym Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most well-known Christian public intellectuals of the 20th century, on whom he wrote his senior undergraduate thesis.