Neuroscientist Explains Why Christian Evangelicals Are Wired To Believe Donald Trumps Lies
President Donald Trump lies so often that it is no longer shocking when it happens, no matter how blatant or absurd the falsehood may be. Not only does Trump regularly exaggerate the truth, he frequently denies facts that can be observed directly from video or audio tapes. This has led some professionals to diagnose his lying as compulsive or pathological, and many psychologists have pointed out that he is constantly gaslighting his basea term that refers to a strategic attempt to get others to question their direct experience of reality.
With so much evidence to contradict his claims, like having the largest inauguration crowd size despite pictures clearly showing otherwise, one must wonder how there are still people out there who believe anything the man says. But the fact of the matter is there are many who swallow it hook, line, and sinker. Most of his fervent supporters are convinced that Trump is the harbinger of truth when it comes to important issues like climate changewhich is really just a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government.
One reason Trump supporters believe his lies comes from a basic fact about the brain: it takes more mental effort to reject an idea as false than to accept it as true. In other words, its easier to believe than to not.
Associate Professor Political Science And Policy Studies
We asked respondents on a range of 16 issues, Are you generally closer to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party when it comes to ? I selected six issues particularly relevant to the 2020 presidential election for deeper analysis: the economy, healthcare, gun control, immigration, the environment and abortion. In order to control for factors related both to issue preferences and to being an evangelical, I estimated logistic regression models that controlled for age, gender, income, education and whether a respondent lived in a rural, suburban or urban county. The figures below report results from those models. They compare the predicted likelihood of a respondent saying their views are closer to the Republican Party depending on whether a respondent identifies as evangelical or not. All figures are limited to white non-Hispanic registered North Carolina voters.
Some of the impact of evangelical identification is likely attributable to a mismatch in party registration and psychological party attachmenta legacy of historically conservative Southern Democrats who still have not changed their official party registration to Republican. However, these effects exist even when controlling for age and residence in a rural county. Thus, I expect the gap is driven more by religion presenting a partisan cleavage among a minority of Democrats in the swing state.
Evangelicals: Key for shoring the Republican base and persuading the middle
The Evangelicals Trump Obsession Has Tarnished Christianity
Evangelical Christians thought lining up behind Donald Trump would be worth it. But they couldnt have been more wrong.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty
The recent death of Christian evangelist Luis Palau, the Billy Graham of Latin America, has me thinking about how the Trump era has affected the ability of Christians to share the good news about Jesus salvation with a diverse and skeptical world. According to his New York Timesobituary, Palau was especially aware of the common assumption that evangelicals are rabid right-wingers, so he sought to compensate by holding festivals in progressive cities. In New England, when you say Christian, they think those maniacs on the right, Palau told the Times in 2001. I want to show that we are not maniacs but that we are well educated. This is a rational faith, but a faith that fires you up. If you believe, as Palau did , that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, then it makes sense to share the good news with everyone you canyes, including college-educated urbanites and progressives. Thats what Palau did.
Evangelical Christians thought lining up behind a Trump was worth it they couldnt be more wrong. The cost-benefit analysis that led them to support him as the lesser of two evils in 2016 didnt factor in the long-term damage he, in fact, is still doing.
This colorful metaphor could be extended into other realms. Trumpism, I would argue, has damaged the Christian brand, as well as the conservative brand.
Also Check: Federal Rent Checks
Christianity Will Have Power
Donald Trump made a promise to white evangelical Christians, whose support can seem mystifying to the outside observer.
Elizabeth Dias covers religion for The New York Times.
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa They walked to the sanctuary in the frozen silence before dawn, footsteps crunching over the snow. Soon, hundreds joined in line. It was January 2016, and the unlikely Republican front-runner, Donald J. Trump, had come to town.
He was the boastful, thrice-married, foul-mouthed star of The Apprentice. They were one of the most conservative Christian communities in the nation, with 19 churches in a town of about 7,500 people.
Many were skeptical, and came to witness the spectacle for themselves. A handful stood in silent protest. But when the doors opened and the pews filled, Mr. Trumps fans welcomed him by chanting his name. A man waved a Silent Majority Stands With Trump sign. A woman pointed a lone pink fingernail up to the sky.
In his dark suit and red tie, Mr. Trump stood in front of a three-story-tall pipe organ and waved his arms in time with their shouts: Trump, Trump, Trump.
I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we dont want to talk about it, Mr. Trump said.
Christians make up the overwhelming majority of the country, he said. And then he slowed slightly to stress each next word: And yet we dont exert the power that we should have.
Theories, and rationalizations, abound:
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.
You May Like: When Did Trump Get Impeached
Why Do Us Evangelicals Support Trump Theyre Giving Christianity A Bad Name
In the UK, the United States president is dismissed or condemned from almost all quarters, and most of us struggle to get our heads around the idea that millions of people voted for Donald Trump. One significant group of these voters were white evangelical Christians. According to the exit polls from the 2016 US election, white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by 81% to 16%.
It has not been unusual for presidential candidates to court the so-called evangelical Christian vote in recent history. If you vote for a president, it doesnt necessarily mean you support everything they stand for. I recognise that: the 81% represents a whole host of motivations and degrees of support rather than a united mass gathering under Trumps banner. But its still a big number.
What matters more, the identity of the person in the White House or the promotion of the good news about Jesus Christ?
One story I stumbled across seemed laughable at first. There is a group in the US who brought out a film shortly before the 2018 midterm elections called The Trump Prophecy. This film likened the US president to Cyrus, the first emperor of Persia a pagan used by God to bring about his purposes.
So not only is it wrong to support Trump on this basis, it is also dangerous. Dangerous because it contributes to the tribal politicisation of evangelical Christians.
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 .
Read Also: How Much Is It To Stay In The Trump Hotel
One Of The Abiding Mysteries Of Contemporary Times Is How A Man Described As A Morally Louche Adulterer With Scarcely A Hint Of Faith Love Or Charity Won The Fealty Of Americas Evangelical Christians
Star Editorial Boardtimer
One of the abiding mysteries of contemporary times is how a man described as a morally louche adulterer with scarcely a hint of faith, love or charity won the fealty of Americas evangelical Christians.
Yet Donald Trump did just that in 2016 even if it was the most cynical of marriages and it carried him to the presidency of the United States.
As Trumps former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen has written since seeing the light, places of religious worship held absolutely no interest to him and he possessed precisely zero personal piety in his life but he knew the power of religion, and that was the language he could speak.
Everything Trump told evangelicals about himself was untrue, Cohen wrote in his book Disloyal.
He was pro-abortion… He didnt care about religion. Homosexuals, divorce, the breakup of the nuclear family hed say whatever they wanted to hear.
He could lie directly to the faces of some of the most powerful religious leaders in the country and they believed him.
And so a deal was struck: evangelicals laid their hands on Trump and delivered their votes Trump delivered rants about godless liberals and, most important, nominated to the Supreme Court conservative judges who seemed open to revisiting abortion rights.
In 2020, however, Trumps grip on that key sector of the electorate seems to be slipping. Not hugely. But possibly enough to, God willing, humble him.
Not Our Faith is not alone.
Read more about:
One Cannot Really Love Jesus And Wish To Follow Him And Also Vote For A Person Who So Clearly Embodies The Opposite Of Everything Christ Taught Died For And Demands Of Us
1:05 PM on Nov 6, 2016 CST
As sociologists of religion, we are intrigued by the surprisingly large number of self-identified Christians, especially evangelicals, who support Trump and have voted for him over the more vocally religious Ted Cruz. In past elections, such voters were motivated by moral convictions around abortion, same sex-marriage, and the perceived deterioration of traditional values, and voted predictably for candidates such as Huckabee, Santorum, and most consequentially, George W. Bush.
These issues and their 2016 equivalents have never been central features of Trumps life history, let alone his candidacy, and on many of them he has confused, moderate or unclear positions. Whatever the appeal of Trump to evangelicals might be, it is not due to these conventional stances.
{“type”:”video”,”title”:”Dallas News Video”,”author_name”:”Dallas News”,”_id”:”trcnQ0NjE6Jt5K9HT4rZ8xiNQCvNmfAn”,”provider_name”:”Ooyala”,”html”:”
“,”providerType”:”ooyala”,”providerLink”:”http://www.dallasnews.com/oembed”,”embedType”:”video”}
For a while, his opponents have seemed willing to ignore Trump, perhaps as a disciplined tact to suffocate his bloviations of the oxygen they need to burn. We have come to feel, however, that this approach has ultimately proven naïve in the wake of his recent primary victories. However unserious anyone might find him, the nation is despairingly at a moment where we must take his challenge seriously.
1. He lacks compassion.
4. He lies a lot.
Don’t Miss: Donald Trump Kkk Parents
He Will Vanquish All Our Foes
Micah Schouten cannot remember exactly why he did not go to hear Mr. Trump that morning. Probably it was just too cold, or maybe he was working.
As a child he dreamed of being a farmer like his father, but land was too expensive. Now he worked at a cattle reproduction company or, as he explained with a smile, I.V.F. for cows.
At the time, he supported Ben Carson. But Mr. Trump was a celebrity, and Dordt University, 10 minutes down the road, was Mr. Schoutens alma mater. The school was named for a major church assembly in 1618 and 1619 that declared salvation was only for Gods chosen ones, and expelled from Dutch territory anyone who disagreed. Its students are Dordt Defenders, represented by a knight in gray armor, wielding a sword like a cross.
So that night, after his three children went to bed, Mr. Schouten pulled up YouTube to hear it for himself.
Soon Mr. Trump made him laugh. The candidate bashed the media. He said the thing about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. But the thing Mr. Schouten remembered most was that he defended Christianity.
Mr. Schouten, 36, is proud of his town and during a tour pointed out a community hospital and water park for children. Asked about the growing Latino population in Sioux Center, he drove to an area he did not know well and pointed out a trailer park where he said new arrivals, many of them Latino workers, live.
They prayed: With our God we shall be valiant, he will vanquish all our foes.
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.
Read Also: Cost Of Room At Trump Tower
