Tag: Evangelical support for Trump

Here’s how the evangelical tradition offers Trump a firewall of protection from his critics: cultural historian

AlterNet logoTo critics of Donald Trump, the only thing more exasperating than the president’s insults, impulsive decisions, and assertions of absolute executive power is witnessing that a steady stream of apparently damning reports has almost no impact on his large band of core supporters. Representative Patricia Schroeder called Ronald Reagan the “Teflon President” because the accusations under his watch about the Iran-Contra and Savings-and-Loan Scandals didn’t stick. Trump’s Teflon shows an upgrade even from Reagan’s resistance to scandal.

There is a widespread view that Trump owes his success to the proliferation of alternative and sympathetic news outlets, along with his steady denigration of the mainstream media. This can explain the messages his supporters receive, but not why they believe them. A closer look at the voters most committed to Trump can shed light on the receiving side of Trump’s Teflon appeal.

White Evangelicals are Trump’s largest and most consistent voting bloc, with poll numbers reliably above 70%, and that support has remained steady through the Corona Pandemic.  Although the president is not religiously pious, he gains support from Evangelicals not just because of his judicial appointments, but also because he appeals to their outsider status, sounds like an authoritative preacher, and does not let fancy talk intrude on proclaiming his convictions. Continue reading.

Evangelical Leaders Close Ranks With Trump After Scathing Editorial

New York Times logoChristianity Today’s call for President Trump’s removal gave voice to his evangelical critics. But they remain a minority in a political movement that Mr. Trump has reshaped in his own mold.

The publication is small, reaching just a fraction of the evangelical movement.

But when Christianity Today called for President Trump’s removal in a blistering editorial on Thursday, it met the full force and fury of the president and his most prominent allies in the Christian conservative world. If the response seemed disproportionate, it vividly reflected the fact that white evangelicals are the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s political base and their leaders are among his most visible and influential supporters.

In the background, however, is a more nuanced reality that Christianity Today’s editorial hints at: a number of conservative Christians remain deeply uncomfortable with an alliance with the president.

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The apocalyptic myth that helps explain evangelical support for Trump

Washington Post logo“God’s used imperfect people all through history. King David wasn’t perfect. Saul wasn’t perfect. Solomon wasn’t perfect,” outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” before going on to claim that he had given the president “a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings about a month ago. And I shared with him, I said, ‘Mr. President, I know there are people who say, you know, you are the chosen one,’ and I said, ‘You were.’ ”

Perry’s statement — especially that “chosen one” bit — would be more surprising in a different administration. At this point, though, it could almost disappear into the background chatter of the administration and its allies. Presidential adviser Paula White, for example, uses the description of a demonic struggle to paint contemporary politics as a holy war. In a sermon about Trump in June, she proclaimed, “I declare President Trump will overcome every strategy from hell and every strategy of the enemy, every strategy, and he will fulfill his calling and his destiny.”

Perry’s and White’s praise may seem outlandish or extreme, but it is entirely in keeping with the way many of the president’s advocates speak of him. Indeed, the tenor of these public pronouncements help explain why he is supported by some 65 percent of white evangelical voters, despite his many improprieties and failings. As Perry’s and White’s remarks remind us, “modern” Christianity has not cast off old ideas. One of its oldest is evident in the “calling and destiny” that White evokes: Implicit in her bombast is a vision of the president as a triumphantly apocalyptic figure, one who evokes the medieval legend of the Last World Emperor.

View the complete November 26 article by Thomas Lecaque on The Washington Post website here.