Trump Grabbing White Born
NEW YORK The list of prominent evangelicals denouncing Donald Trump is growing, but is anyone in the flock listening? The bloc of voters powering the real estate mogul through the Republican primaries is significantly weighted with white born-again Christians.
As Trump’s ascendancy forces the GOP establishment to confront how it lost touch with so many conservative voters, top evangelicals are facing their own dark night, wondering what has drawn so many Christians to a twice-divorced, profane casino magnate with a muddled record on abortion and gay marriage.
John Stemberger, a Trump critic and head of the Florida Family Policy Council, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, said many evangelicals have changed. Litmus tests that for so long defined the boundaries for morally acceptable candidates seem to have been abandoned by many Christians this year, he said, no matter how much evangelical leaders try to uphold those standards.
“Evangelicals are looking at those issues less and less. They’ve just become too worldly, letting anger and frustration control them, as opposed to trusting in God,” Stemberger said.
“We’re leading with evangelicals all over the country,” Trump said Saturday at a rally in Wichita, Kansas. “Leading big, because they don’t want to vote for a liar. You have lying Ted Cruz. … He holds up the Bible and then he tells you exactly what I didn’t say.”
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Republicans More Likely Than Democrats To Want A Religious President
Overall, upward of nine-in-ten Republicans and Democrats agree that it is at least somewhat important to have a president who personally lives a moral and ethical life, though Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say that this is very important .
Most people in both parties also say they want a president who stands up for their religious beliefs on this question, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say this is very important .
Having a president who is deeply religious or who shares ones own religious beliefs is less important to both Republicans and Democrats, but Republicans place a higher premium than Democrats on both of these qualities. This dovetails with the fact that most religious nones are Democrats, and that this group has been growing more quickly in the Democratic Party than in the GOP.
How Donald Trump Is Dividing Evangelical Christians
The divisive Trump has fractured the Republican Party’s longtime alliancesand it could dramatically reshape U.S. politics
By Brian BethuneJuly 17, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up his Bible during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015.
For more than a year now, Donald Trump has been the genie of disruption in American national politics. The presumptive Republican nominee has brought polar opposites together, if only in shared loathing. Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator and scourge of Wall Street, and Mitt Romney, the wealthy 2012 Republican presidential candidateboth of whom have called Trump a fraud unfit for the Oval Officecan scarcely have a single other name in common on their enemies lists.
And he has driven a deep wedge into old alliances, something captured in an explosive, Trump-inspired tweet from Southern Baptist pastor Russell Moore, perhaps the most prominent anti-Trump Christian leader in the country, calling popular televangelist Paula White a charlatan and a heretic.
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Trump has causedor rather exposedfault lines right across Republican politics. But no other fracture is as potentially transformative, in partisan and national terms, as the stresses Trump is placing on the vote-rich leg of the Republicans famous three-legged stool: the 40-year-old embrace between the party and socially conservative evangelical Christians.
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For God And Country: The Christian Case For Trump
Contact store for availability!We Ship Too!Donald Trump–Defender of Religious Freedom
In 2016, many Christian leaders at first opposed candidate Donald Trump. He was a former social liberal, and his occasional vulgarity, multiple marriages and divorces, and tabloid scandals made it impossible for him to defend Christian values in public life. Or so they thought.
Trump nevertheless won four-fifths of the Evangelical vote in 2016, as well as the majority of the Catholic vote. And in 2020, the idea that he can’t represent Christians is demonstrably false. He has been the most ardent and effective presidential defender of religious liberty and the pro-life cause since Ronald Reagan–and perhaps in U.S. history.
In For God and Country, Dr. Ralph Reed draws on his deep knowledge of American history, his unsurpassed experience as a political strategist, his personal dealings with President Trump and the First Family, and his moral commitment as a Christian to show why Catholics and Evangelicals should continue to strongly support their unlikely champion.
In For God and Country, Reed reveals:
For God and Country is not just required reading for the 2020 election it is required reading for every conservative Christian who loves America and wants to return it to Christian values.
Few Americans Think God Specifically Picked Trump Due To His Policies
A substantial minority of Americans think that the results of recent presidential elections are broadly part of Gods plan for the world. But far fewer believe that God has chosen specific U.S. presidents as an endorsement of their policies.
Overall, just 5% of U.S. adults believe God chose Trump to become president because God approves of Trumps policies. An additional 27% say Trumps victory in the 2016 election must be part of Gods overall plan, but it does not necessarily mean that God favors Trumps policies. The remaining two-thirds of Americans either say that God does not get involved in U.S. presidential elections or that they do not believe in God .
Public opinion about Gods role in the 2008 and 2012 elections is very similar. Only 3% of U.S. adults say God chose Obama to be president in 2008 and 2012 because God approved of his policies, 29% say Obamas election was part of Gods broader plan but not necessarily an indication that God endorsed Obamas policies, and the remainder say either that God does not get involved in elections or that they do not believe in a deity .
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On Balance Americans Say Trump Administration Has Helped Evangelicals Hurt Muslims
The survey asked whether the Trump administration has helped, hurt or not made much of a difference to the interests of five groups: evangelical Christians, Jews, Catholics, Muslims and people who are not religious. Fewer than half of U.S. adults think the Trump administration has helped any of these groups. But more say the Trump administration has helped evangelical Christians than say it has helped any of the other groups asked about in the survey . And nearly half of U.S. adults say the Trump administration has hurt Muslims. Indeed, U.S. adults are seven times more likely to say the administration has hurt Muslims than to say it has helped this group .
Americans are somewhat divided on the Trump administrations impact on Jews, with 29% saying Trump has helped Jews, 26% saying he has hurt this group, and 42% saying he has made no difference. Jews themselves also are divided on this question: 40% of U.S. Jews say the administration has helped their interests and 36% say it has hurt them, with fewer saying it has not made much difference . A majority of white evangelical Protestants , meanwhile, say the administration has helped Jewish interests. See Chapter 1 for full details.
Americans Tend To See Christianity Declining In Influence
While white Christians and especially white evangelical Protestants are feeling good about their political prospects, they are not as positive about the status of Christianity in America today. Fully two-thirds of white evangelicals think Christianitys influence is decreasing in American life. And a similar share of white evangelical Protestants say there is at least some conflict between their own religious beliefs and mainstream American culture, including three-in-ten who say there is a great deal of conflict.
Why do people feel this way? The survey asked respondents who said Christianitys influence is declining a series of follow-up questions to gauge several possible causes for this decline, and the most common reasons cited as major causes are growth in the number of people in the U.S. who are not religious and misconduct by Christian leaders. But among white evangelical Protestants, the most commonly cited reason for Christianitys declining influence is more permissive attitudes about sexual behavior and sexuality in popular culture .
Among U.S. adults overall, about half think that Christianitys influence is declining, and they are about evenly divided on whether this is a permanent change or just temporary .
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Jeff Sessions Explains Why Christians Support Trump
The former attorney general compared the president to a Middle Eastern strongman.
About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
In Christ there is no east or west / In him no south or north, / But one great family bound by love / Throughout the whole wide earth, goes the old hymn.
But in Donald Trump, there is division among American Christians. On one side are those who insist that the president is a Christian hero who is standing up for religious rights. On the other are critics who counter that white evangelical Christians have struck a corrupt but convenient bargain with an immoral leader whose inclinations are dictatorial, not religious.
Into this debate strides former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who, despite his excommunication from Trumps good graces, remains a die-hard backer of the president and his ideological agenda. Yet in a masterful profile in The New York Times Magazine by Elaina Plott, he comes down solidly, if unwittingly, on the side of the skeptics. Sessions suggests that the presidents own religious convictions are irrelevant, compares him to the dictators Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Bashar al-Assad, and makes the case for choosing a strongman who can defend Christians over democratic politics.
Donald Trump Has Become Born
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Treasure Island hotel and casino, Saturday, June 18, 2016, in Las Vegas.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has become a born-again Christian, according to one of the country’s most prominent evangelical leaders.
Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson said Trump has accepted Christ, a step towards salvation in most Evangelical faiths.
“Trump did accept a relationship with Christ,” Dobson said in a radio interview last week.“I know the person who led him to Christ, and that’s fairly recent.”
Dobson referred to Trump as a “baby Christian.”
“I don’t know when it was, but it has not been long,” Dobson said. “And I believe he really made a commitment. He’s a baby Christian… need to be praying for him.”
Trump’s campaign has not confirmed Dobson’s statements, which came less than a week after the business mogul-turned-politician met with a group of prominent evangelical leaders.
Dobson and other evangelicals have offered support for Trump, even as they have expressed concern for his abrupt style and sometimes crude comments. Dobson said as a new member of the faith, Trump – who was raised Presbyterian – is still in the early stages of his faith journey.
“And I think there’s hope for us,” he added.
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Is Donald Trump Now A Born
After Donald Trump met with a group of evangelical leaders last week, Dr. James Dobson said that Trump “did accept a relationship with Christ,” and he had done so recently.
Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, was talking about the meeting with Trump in an interview with Pastor Michael Anthony on his website, Godfactor.com, and Anthony had said he was taken aback by a “gentler Trump.”
“e did accept a relationship with Christ,”Dobson said. “I know the person who led him to Christ — that’s fairly recent.”
Surprised, Anthony asked him, “How recently, roughly?” And Dobson responded, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know when it was. But it has not been long.”
Trump, who has in the past said he is Presbyterian, has occasionally stumbled over religious references during the campaign. Asked what his favorite Bible verse is, he chose the Old Testament’s “eye for an eye.” And during an address at Liberty University, he referred to Second Corinthians as “Two Corinthians.”
Dobson talked about Trump’s unfamiliarity with the vernacular of evangelical Christians.
“He doesn’t know our language — you know, we had 40 Christians together with him,” he told Anthony. “He used the word hell four or five times. He doesn’t know our language. He really doesn’t.”
One example Dobson pointed to — “he refers a lot to religion and not much to faith and belief.”
But this, Dobson says, is a function of the fact that Trump wasn’t raised in the church.
To The Public Overall Morality Is More Important In A President Than Strong Religious Beliefs
For this report, we surveyed 6,395 U.S. adults from Feb. 4 to 15, 2020. All respondents to the survey are part of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel , an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. For more, see the ATPs methodology and the methodology for this report.
Heading into the 2020 election season, a new Pew Research Center survey delves into the relationship between religion and politics, including perceptions about President Donald Trump among white evangelical Protestants, a key part of his electoral base. It finds that white evangelicals largely see Trump as fighting for their beliefs and advancing their interests, and they feel their side generally has been winning recently on political matters important to them. But when it comes to Trumps personal qualities and conduct, many express mixed feelings. Even among this strongly supportive constituency, most do not view Trump as a very religious, honest or morally upstanding person .
Across all religious groups in this analysis, there is near consensus on one Trump characteristic: Majorities of all groups, including 70% of white evangelicals, say that self-centered describes Trump at least fairly well.
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Religious Right Leader Sees Trump As ‘a Baby Christian’
thisNew York Times
Has Donald J. Trump become a born-again Christian? That is the suggestion of James C. Dobson, one of America’s leading evangelicals, who said Mr. Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ” and was now “a baby Christian.” Dr. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and one of the country’s most prominent social conservatives, gave his account at a meeting Mr. Trump had in New York on Tuesday with hundreds of Christian conservatives.
Times’
Trumps Bid To Become Born
- Save this story for later.
NEW YORK The billionaire Donald J. Trumps bid to become a born-again Christian failed over the weekend after Jesus Christ turned down his friend request, campaign officials have acknowledged.
Jesus, who has not generally been active on Facebook, made a rare appearance on the social network on Monday to announce His decision to ignore the presumptive Republican nominees request for a personal relationship with Him.
In a brief post, Jesus offered the following explanation: Just everything.
The turndown from Jesus Christ, the inspiration behind one of the worlds most prominent religions, caps what has been a tough month for the Trump campaign.
Privately, campaign staffers fretted that the candidate would pen a disparaging tweet about Jesus, which might alienate evangelical voters in key battleground states.
But, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump made no reference to Jesus, and instead touted endorsements he had received from Gary Busey, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Joe Wurzelbacher.
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Many Other White Christians Not Just Evangelicals Express Affinity For Trump
White evangelical Protestants are not alone in their admiration of Trump. Among other groups of white Christians, smaller but still substantial majorities also express agreement with Trumps policies and associate him with a number of positive traits, such as intelligence.
For example, roughly two-thirds of white Catholics say the phrase fights for what I believe in describes Donald Trump very well or fairly well, and 68% of white Catholics say intelligent is a fairly or very good descriptor of Trump. Similar shares of white Protestants who are not born-again or evangelical Christians say the same. And more than half of people in both groups say they agree with Trump on many, nearly all or all of the important issues facing the country.
The survey shows, furthermore, that growing numbers in all three of the largest white Christian groups think that their side has been winning recently on the political issues that matter to them.
Today, 63% of white evangelical Protestants say their side has been winning lately, nearly triple the share who said this in May 2016, six months before Trumps election. The share of white non-evangelical Protestants who think their side has been winning politically is up 19 percentage points over the same period, and the share of white Catholics who think their side has been politically victorious of late is 29 points higher today than it was in 2016.
Trump Once Presbyterian Now Says Hes A Nondenominational Christian
President Donald Trump prepares his offering as he attends church at International Church of Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020.
Washington In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service, President Donald Trump said in a written statement that he no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and now sees himself as a nondenominational Christian.
Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a nondenominational Christian, Trump, who has repeatedly identified as a Presbyterian in the past, said in a written response to RNS.
Saying that his parents taught me the importance of faith and prayer from a young age, Trump went on to say that Melania and I have gotten to visit some amazing churches and meet with great faith leaders from around the world. During the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, I tuned into several virtual church services and know that millions of Americans did the same.
The revelation about Trumps religious identity appeared in an interview that was conducted in writing and covered a variety of faith topics, ranging from the presidents own spiritual life to his plans for the White House office tasked with engaging faith groups.
Questions for the interview, which were first negotiated with the White House press office, were presented to the president by Paula White, a Florida pastor and the head of the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, according to the White House.
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