WHY WHITE EVANGELICALS VOTE FOR TRUMP!

…Trump’s level of being religious

 

Reputable studies show why religious Americans voted for Donald Trump

 

I don’t know about you, but I seriously didn’t understand why the non-religious president continues to get a “Mulligan” from the white, American evangelicals….?

 

It seems that, compared to dealing with former philandering politicians, despite porn stars and Playboy models, white evangelicals aren’t rejecting Donald Trump.

 

However, due to some new studies by the very reputable Pew Research Center, and through the Baylor Religion Survey, we have some new answers to that question.  But  just to condense these results, which I will later review the details, here are the results in one sentence: “Many white Christians believe Trump may be an effective instrument in God’s plan for America, even if he is not particularly religious himself.”

 

Huh…..?

 

OK, here are the details of the research.

 

In the 60 Minutes interview that aired March 25, the former porn star, Stormy Daniels said she was threatened with harm for attempting to tell her story about her short affair with Donald Trump in 2006. 

 

She said she had sex with Donald Trump, only a few months after his wife gave birth to his son. In addition, a former Playboy model says she had an affair with him as well. And yet according to the Pew Research Center poll conducted March 7-14, both white mainline and evangelical Protestants continue to approve of Trump as president.  And they are doing that at higher levels than any other religious groups.

 

The obvious question is, “Why are white Christians sticking so closely to Trump, despite these claims of sexual indiscretions?”  And why are religious individuals and groups that previously were against sexual impropriety among any other political leaders willing to give that “Mulligan” to Trump on his infidelity?

 

The Pew Study and the Baylor Survey points to a very different answer than other studies have offered. Voters’ religious tenets aren’t actually what’s behind Trump support; rather, it’s the Christian nationalism and their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation.  Just as the former Trump Senior Adviser, Stephen Bannon had stated, the nation’s focus on their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation seems to overcome all of the president’s improprieties.

 

To measure Christian nationalism, the studies combined the responses to the following six separate questions asking whether respondents agreed or disagreed with these statements:

 

·       “The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation?”

·       “The federal government should advocate Christian values?”

·       “The federal government should enforce strict separation of church and state?”

·       “The federal government should allow the display of religious symbols in public spaces?”

·       “The success of the United States is part of God’s plan?”

·       “The federal government should allow prayer in public schools?

 

The study also examined many other common explanations of support for Trump, including former US economic dissatisfaction, their attitudes based on gender, on any anti-black prejudice, their attitudes on illegal immigrants and their views toward Muslims.

 

Finally, the statistical models accounted for religious affiliation, religious beliefs, and a variety of religious behaviors, as well as political measures including party affiliation and political ideology.  They even tooked into consideration of the socio-demographic factors of age, gender, race, education, income, and marital status.

 

The results were astounding.  They were that the more someone believed the United States as a Christian nation, the more likely they were to vote for Trump.  Yes, those were the overall results.

 

The other amazing result was that compared to all the GOP’s talking points about who voted for Trump, it’s time to bust the following myth: That most Trump voters were from the blue-collar working class.

 

Most Americans who agreed with the various measures of Christian nationalism were much more likely to vote for Trump….period.  This is the situation even after considering a host of other influences, such as political ideology, political party, and other cultural factors proposed as possible explanations of Trump voting.

 

And yes, the study showed amazingly that Democratic believers in Christian Nationalism were three times more likely to vote for Trump than a Democrat at the lower end of Christian nationalism. For independents, the probability of voting for Trump increased if they were high on the Christian nationalism scale.  Likewise, Republicans scoring low in Christian nationalism were significantly less likely to vote for Trump than those scoring high on the nationalistic scale.

 

No other religious factor influenced support for or against Trump.  However, antagonism toward Muslims was just as important as Christian nationalism  The measures of religion only mattered positively if they saw the United States as a Christian nation. 

 

These various cultural explanations that other researchers have examined did not predict any Trump support in the study.  That is but with that one notable exception: strong anti-Muslim sentiment.

 

How much an American voter feared Muslims was as significant in who voted for Trump as was Christian nationalism.

 

Overall , predicting who the voters would vote for included the usual suspects of political identity and race, but hey were followed very closely by Islamophobia and Christian nationalism.

 

So , what does all this mean?

 

It means that many voters believed, and they presumably still believe, that regardless of his personal religion, or lack thereof, President Trump will defend what they saw as the country’s Christian heritage.  And he will help move the nation toward a distinctly Christian future.

 

It is important to understand that the study also showed that to many Americans, being patriotic to them means being “white”.  Therefore, as stated, many white, religious Christians believe the non-religious Trump may be a positive instrument in God’s plan for America.

Now, we all know that white Christian America is obviously in a serious decline. But one of its primary creations, Christian nationalism, will continue influencing US politics and the American society. 

 

In other words:  More potential support for voting for Donald J. Trump.

 

But how long will this support last?  Nobody knows!

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018