![]() ![]() Professing belief in the Bible is only a start, because, in and of itself, that statement of belief isn’t very meaningful. ![]() Among African-Americans who fit all four of the evangelicals’ religious criteria, only a quarter use that term for themselves, as many Black people see evangelicalism as “a white religious brand.” (Black Christians have a distinct tradition of prophetic theology.)Įven if people who call themselves “evangelical” do seem to fit the religious criteria and want to be associated with the movement, it’s difficult to say what it would mean to be a good fit. ![]() An evangelical in the mid-twentieth-century was “anyone who likes Billy Graham,” as historian George Marsden said “by the 1970s a conservative might well be defined as anyone who loved John Wayne,” Du Mez adds and “today,” she elaborates, “many people count themselves ‘evangelical’ because they watch Fox News, consider themselves religious, and vote Republican.” That’s a self-contained bubble: The Republicans who consider themselves evangelical are voting Republican. (This definition comes from the National Association of Evangelicals.)Īre we certain that the Trump voters - the 81 percent of self-identified white evangelicals - are true evangelicals, according to this definition? That’s trickier. Trump’s election was, therefore, “the culmination of evangelicals’ embrace of militant masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones the callous display of power, at home and abroad.” Exactly what is an evangelical?Īn evangelical Christian accepts the authority of the Bible, believes that Jesus Christ died for the sins of humanity, says that true Christians are “born again” when they accept Christ, and tries to convert others. American Christians had been making a large effort to reassert gender roles since the 1960s, and now they felt they were losing. “Gender was at the heart of this perceived vulnerability,” she writes, referring to the early 21st century that ushered in greater availability of contraception and the recognition of same-sex couples and transgender people. White evangelical Protestants, more so than other religious group in the United States, express approval of guns, capital punishment, border walls, war, and even torture disapprove of refugees and other immigrants trust their own religious authorities fear Islam and a future in which white people are no longer a majority in the US and consider themselves victims. Was it a pragmatic or transactional choice that is, did they trade their values for political power? Du Mez believes that, to the contrary, they acted on their values. Ultimately, in the general election, 81 percent of white evangelical voters picked Trump over Clinton. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez The question of TrumpismĮven before the 2016 primaries began, nearly half of white evangelicals hoped that Trump would gain the Republican nomination. ![]()
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