RELIGION TAKES POSITION IN POLITICS THAT HASN’T OCCURRED IN DECADES

…Liberty University, the Jerry Falwell founded University where candidates from both parties have spoken.

 

If you are confused about American evangelicals supporting Donald Trump, you’re not alone.

 

To get away from always focusing on such a rich target as Donald Trump, there’s another area of this election campaign that has come to my attention.

 

It’s where today’s religion has taken a new role in the campaigns.

 

Having a new Catholic Pope that continues to loosen the reins on the church’s attitude toward sexuality and the church’s divorced members and their remarried Catholics, this is just one part of the new political situation.

 

But the area that is causing more questions is the conservative evangelical movement that is divided over Donald Trump’s and Ted Cruz’ candidacy.

 

To start with, many of the religious leaders have denounced Trump in the extreme terms they would usually apply to highly liberal politicians.

 

As Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention stated in the National Review: “Can conservatives really believe that, if elected, Trump would care about protecting the family’s place in society when his own life is, unapologetically, what conservatives used to recognize as decadent?”  Moore wrote this earlier this year.  He also added: “Trump’s willingness to ban Muslims, even temporarily, from entering the country simply because of their religious affiliation would make Thomas Jefferson spin in his grave.”

 

But, given this statement by Mr. Moore, what is so confusing is why the evangelical voters are supporting Donald Trump...?

 

In primary after primary, Trump has won large shares of self-described “born again” or evangelical voters, particularly in the South.

 

In the Southern Super Tuesday contests last month, Trump’s showings in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama were exceptionally strong.  Evangelicals made up 77% of Alabama’s Republican primary electorate, and Trump carried them 43% to 22% over Cruz.

 

If you will recall, Cruz even started his campaign with a speech at the southern Liberty University, an evangelical intellectual bastion.  But the Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders has also appeared and spoken at that same religious university.  Democrats had previously not been asked or encouraged to speak at this highly conservative university founded by Jerry Falwell.

 

But even with his defeat in Wisconsin, Trump for some reason did about as well among evangelicals at 34%, as he did with non-evangelicals at 36%.

 

For another surprise, Bernie Sanders, the Jewish democratic socialist presidential candidate will be jetting-off this month to the Vatican where he’ll attend a gathering of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.  Here, Bernie will make his case about climate change and social justice, which is quite in line with Pope Francis’s outlook.

 

The idea of an independent Jewish socialist candidate, visiting the head of the Catholic church, who also has also been receiving positive comments from this Jewish Democratic candidate, it boggles the mind.

 

And the devout Republican evangelical voters being split between a non-conservative Trump and a very truly conservative Ted Cruz, is even harder to explain.

 

As Ms. Elizabeth Bruenig of The Post, argued in the New Republic, “the old-fashioned model of reaching evangelicals no longer appears to be functional.”

 

Robert Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute stated in The Atlantic that he now sees many former strict evangelicals as “nostalgia voters”.  He stated that they are animated less today by “a checklist of culture war issues”.  They are instead energized by their anger and anxiety that arises from a sense that their former conservative culture is moving away from their religious values. 

 

There are some that think that if Ted Cruz were to secure the Republican nomination, perhaps the more traditional patterns of white evangelical voting patterns might re-assert themselves.

 

But with the new, liberal Pope Francis, he is lifting up what some are calling “Social Justice Christianity”.  That being, the opposite of the old concept that real religious belief lives largely on the conservative end of US politics.  That idea may currently be in the process of being overturned.  Ergo, a reason for explaining why some evangelicals are supporting Trump.

 

As another example of increased religion in politics, there is the long-standing activism of African American Christians in the politics of economic and racial equity.  And the Clintons have been deeply engaged with black churches from the outset of Hillary’s first campaign in 2008.  This is not the case with any of the other candidates from either party.

 

Hillary’s deep commitment to her Methodist faith and its social demands appears central to her political identity.  That “commitment” just might be the key to solving her much-discussed “authenticity” issues.  It is true that her faith is a powerful part of who Hillary is today.  If as expected, she is the final Democratic candidate, this position with the black and Hispanic community may be what will take her over the top in the general election.

 

As I had said, religion is taking a new and important role in today’s political campaigns.  With the Jewish independent candidate heading off to visit the Pope, that just makes the reality of today’s religion in politics that much more confusing.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016