What the election tells us about religion

[struggle4progress]

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
November 12, 2020 at 3:07 p.m. EST

... White evangelical Christians remain firmly in the Republican camp. Whether male or female, or from the North or the South, they remain in a party increasingly defined by cultural, racial and emotional factors. To them, it does not matter whether President Trump was incompetent at addressing covid-19 or was personally corrupt; he was their warrior against “others” (elites, urbanites, minorities, immigrants). Politics is not about problem-solving but rather about “owning the libs" ...

“While White evangelical Protestants have declined as a proportion of the population over the last decade, from 21 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2019, they have maintained an outsize presence at the ballot box, somewhere between one-fifth and one-quarter of voters,” Jones said. He described this as a “time machine,” whereby the White evangelical Christians’ outsize vote “has the effect of turning back the demographic clock by nearly a decade. In other words, we’re living in the demographic realities of 2020, but our elections are being conducted, demographically speaking, in 2012 America” ...

... Catholics — once a mainstay of the Democratic Party who, along with the Reagan Democrats, shifted to the GOP — now seem to be turning back to Democrats. The Post reports: “Catholics overall supported Biden — who will be only the second Catholic president — by 52 percent to 47 percent nationwide, a reversal from Trump’s 50 percent-to-46 percent edge in 2016. Preliminary exit polls show the shift was concentrated among White Catholics, who had supported Trump by a 24-point margin in 2016 and backed Republican nominee Mitt Romney by 19 points in 2012.” In the two exit poll surveys, Biden narrowed the gap with White Catholics to 12 to 13 points. The reason may have to do more with Biden than his own Catholicism ...

In sum, White evangelical Protestants are the backbone of the GOP, but their geographic concentration and population decline mean Republicans are living on borrowed time. Democrats who can appeal to non-evangelicals, non-White evangelicals and those who identify as “none of the above” stand to create an enduring coalition.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/what-election-tells-us-about-religion-america/

[keithbvadu2]

1. "owning the libs" ...

[Vogon_Glory]

2. I was surprised by the LDS vote

Much had been made of LDS church members being disgusted by Donnie’s non-stop lying and amorality. I had expected a fraction of them to vote for Joe or, if the blind-mice pollsters’ sampling had proven right, to at least vote down-ballot and leave Donnie to his fate. But it looks like they went ahead and voted for Orange Julius anyway.

I guess morals and integrity only count—if you’re not a Republican. In which case anything goes.

[Captain Zero]

7. LDS IS very anti-catholic

Had a friend try to get hired into an Arizona Sherrifs dept. That was was run by LDS. He had good credentials. A friend there laughed and told him, you're catholic, they are NEVER going to hire you.

[Mariana]

10. Sure, there were some stories about individual church members.

Was there ever any stories that suggested they represented Mormon voters as a whole?

There were a bunch of stories about white Evangelical Christians turning on him, too. Much was also made of these stories. If you actually read the stories, though, they were always about one person or a few individuals. The readers who convinced themselves that these stories were evidence of a shift in the voting pattern of white Evangelical Christians as a whole were engaging in wishful thinking. There was nothing to indicate that, and plenty of evidence to the contrary.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

3. They are faithist!

[Delphinus]

4. Not sure what

the meaning of "faithist" is - could you explain? Thanks!

[NameAlreadyTaken]

6. Discrimination based on another's

specific faith or lack of faith?

[Captain Zero]

8. Sorry, see my #10 above

I should have put it after your post.

[mdbl]

5. It's just sadly comical they all voted for the worst personality in modern times

Immoral, unethical, partial, childish, vulgar, adulterer, liar, narcissist. Isn't all that crap in the bible somewhere? Do they still read the bible? I am a heathen so I really don't care all the much other than to say that JESUS REALLY HATED hypocrites. I guess what he said wasn't that important to them.

[Mariana]

11. Actually, it makes sense.

If you've ever read the Bible, you know that it's stuffed with stories about utterly depraved men whom God chose to put into positions of power over others, and showered with his favor and his blessings. It's not the least bit out of character for the Christian god to choose someone like Trump to put into the office of President of the United States. In fact, his Evangelical Christian supporters often compared Trump to these awful Biblical "heroes" to excuse his disgusting personality and behavior.

[Locrian]

29. very true

I never got the question "why" they supported trump or other authoritarians.
Aside from a few touchy feely baby jesus parts - the bible is pretty much an instruction book for authoritarianism

[qdouble]

33. While the Bible includes stories of flawed leaders...

Nowhere in the Bible does it encourage people to cheer on immoral behavior. Especially not in the New Testament. Obeying authority and being an authoritarian aren’t the same thing.

[LiberalLovinLug]

9. It was and is, still shocking to me how loyal they still seem to be to him

I grew up in that world, so I understand how authoritarian it is. How hypocritical. How covertly bigoted.

But I honestly expected the majority of them to come around to the the never Trumpers after his God awful behaviour and language. Separating children from mothers, and losing over 500 parents. And basically breaking all 10 commandments, lying daily, and of course his betrayal of looking out for the well being of the citizens he is supposed to be protecting. While Jesus went out of his way to heal the sick. Trump is.....for lack of a better term.....the Anti-Christ.

[Mariana]

12. They believe he's God's own hand-picked president.

Therefore, opposition to Trump equals opposition to God. Of course they're going to continue to support him.

[TryLogic]

13. Yes, if Trump won, then it was God's will, so all is good.

I grew up deep in Southern Baptistism. I suggest that Religion is the art of pretending, which I suspect is helpful sometimes.

On edit: Hmm, I guess that is why Republicanism is all about winning.

[Mariana]

14. And if Biden won, it's against God's will

and they should oppose everything he does, every step of the way, just like they did with Obama.

[TryLogic]

17. I think the massive blockage of everything Obama was highly racial, and of course, stupid.

[Mariana]

19. Yes, it was.

Plenty of white Evangelical Christians are highly racist.

[bluestarone]

15. EXACTLY this!

BUT MY argument (to THEM) is If GOD hand picked RUMP, WHY the fuck did he LOSE? They are sooo fucking stupid that their beliefs are FALSE!!!!

[Mariana]

16. He didn't lose.

He won in a landslide. It only appears that he lost because the forces of Satan (read: Democrats) committed fraud in this election on a massive scale, just like Trump says.

/White Evangelical Christians

[bluestarone]

18. YEA heard that

SO their belief is GOD lost to satan? (they are totally fucked up to believe THIS)

[Mariana]

20. Satan sometimes wins battles here on earth, but God will win the war in the end.

/White Evangelical Christians

[bluestarone]

22. Satan wins with THESE type people

BUT i DO HEAR what you're saying!! Just can't fix THIS type thinking!!

[Mariana]

23. I hope President Biden will order the IRS to vigorously enforce the Johnson Amendment.

Revoke the tax-exempt status of churches that tell their congregations which candidates or political party to support. There are certainly a lot of them.

[bluestarone]

24. You got this right!!

100000000000000000% agree!!

[Blue_true]

25. Biblical stories have so many twists.

For example, Satan can tempt god’s creations that are built in god’s image (us) and win without god intervening. Satan can tempt the son of god and that son struggles against giving in. None of us know the real basis of our existence, NONE OF US, even ministers. Popes, Imams, Rabbis. The Bible and other religious tomes appear, to me, to be nothing more than attempts to explain the workings of Fate (which, IMO, has no biblical or otherwise basis).

[bluestarone]

26. I feel the true reallity will be that

Religion WILL be the destruction of our country! Just like the middle-east. You know we can't allow people to believe the way they want to believe. (THIS is how these crazy bastards think)

[Blue_true]

28. Maybe. My guess is that it won't.

What is more likely to happen is people that wear religion on their sleeves will be ignored. A lot of religious people that simply practice their faith ignore the extremists. Societies historically become more secular in time, unless there is state forced religion, like in Iran. I don’t see us going toward state forced religion.

[TryLogic]

21. I saw a comment recently... "The difference between supidity and genius is

that genius has some limits."

[roamer65]

27. Religion is poison.

Look at its history of death and destruction.

Jesus would be ashamed to see what’s been perpetrated in his name.

[Goodheart]

31. Good post, except that there was no Jesus. :)

[Goodheart]

30. Religion is a cancer upon society

Every last one of them is total nonsense.

[JustGene]

32. Agreed

Sadly, it will stick around as long as it helps control the masses.