I don’t pretend to understand this. I always knew that conservative evangelicals were Republicans. But I had taken them at their word that they were acting on a set of conservative principles they believed were inspired by Biblical teachings. Sure, it was an identity as much as a religious affiliation but I thought it was sincere.
Their deification of Donald Trump has shown that they were not sincere. It is all identity and has nothing to do with the religion itself. If it did they would not supporting the amoral, libertine Donald Trump:
Since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 due in part to strong support from White evangelical Protestants, many observers have wondered what impact this political alliance might have on the evangelical church in the United States. Would there be an exodus from the church on the part of those who do not share their fellow evangelicals’ enthusiasm for the former president? If so, would this leave behind a smaller evangelical population, or would any such defectors be replaced by Trump-supporting converts to evangelicalism? And would White evangelicals who backed Trump in 2016 stick with him in 2020?
Contrary to what some may have expected, a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data finds that there has been no large-scale departure from evangelicalism among White Americans. In fact, there is solid evidence that White Americans who viewed Trump favorably and did not identify as evangelicals in 2016 were much more likely than White Trump skeptics to begin identifying as born-again or evangelical Protestants by 2020.
Additionally, the surveys do not clearly show that White evangelicals who opposed Trump were significantly more likely than Trump supporters to drop the evangelical label. The data also shows that Trump’s electoral performance among White evangelicals was even stronger in 2020 than in 2016, partially due to increased support among White voters who described themselves as evangelicals throughout this period.How we did this
These findings come from the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), which provides a unique window into the relationship between Trump and evangelicals because it has been collecting data from a single group of respondents at various points in time since 2014. In this analysis, we examine responses from ATP members who participated in each of two surveys – one conducted right after the 2016 election, and another conducted following the 2020 election.
“Conservative” Evangelical Christianity can no longer be considered a religion. It’s a cult. And their God is Donald Trump.