Evangelicals are leaving their churches over Donald Trump

[applegrove]

by Sarah K. Burris at Raw Story

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/evangelicals-are-leaving-their-churches-over-donald-trump/

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President Donald Trump might be the most divisive politician in history, but for many, politics is left behind when sitting in the pews. For others, bringing politics to the altar is driving them away.

A survey from The Washington Post interviewed evangelicals before the 2016 election and after. Over one in ten left their church by mid-November and about 15 percent of church-going Americans who think politics has become too divisive left their church as well.

Two groups ultimately ended up leaving their churches: Those who liked Trump while the pastor did not and those who didn’t like Trump but felt their pastor did. The no-win situation might be one of the reasons that pastors stopped talking about politics after November.

This isn’t the first election where evangelicals played a role in politics. In 2004, President George W. Bush’s senior advisor Karl Rove worked with religious leaders to ensure 10 million evangelicals came to the polls to support Bush.


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[Alice11111]

1. Great. Integrity. I love it.

Boy, do I remember the Karl Rove rush in 2004. I was an election Judge in a Catholic, very Dem, rural Precinct.
Dem turn out was way higher, as expected. About 45 min before the poles closed, hundreds of people were brought in and came in individually. The Republicans were making last minute phone calls and door knocks, working with the church to get Repubs out. That year, Karl Rove made it all about abortion.

I was calling Dem HQ, saying we have a problem. They kept saying, don't worry, your Precinct is a dead win.
I suspect the Repub election judge...who obviously didn't have a clue or seem to care what the voting laws were, as he was sending the Repubs with questions to me, to tell them what they needed to do to vote...was all the while sending feedback to his team, to get the buses. That was the only year NM went red, since it has been predictably blue. Stunning. It was taken for granted this year too, but we won.

We really do need a 50 state approach, not just to flip some red states, but to keep some blue states...Wisconsin, Michigan. Howard Dean, you were good!!!

[kimbutgar]

2. Well then he really going to destroy churches when he repeals the Johnson amendment

Where you can't politicize in church and keep the tax exemption.

I am. It a church goer but if my pastor started pushing chump I'd get up and walk over very loudly. A friend of my did that and never went back. She was active in all her charity groups and found another church that she now is thriving in.

[elleng]

3. 'In 2004, President George W. Bushs senior advisor Karl Rove worked with religious leaders

to ensure 10 million evangelicals came to the polls to support Bush,' this and the UNDEReducated started us on the road to where we are today.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. Any evangelical that supports Trump is a fucking POS!

I have called out a few of them. I am at a point where I don't sugar coat it. Fuck 'em!!

[Blanks]

5. i don't know what kind of logical disconnect...

It would take for a religious person to support Trump.

Divorced, doesn't pay contractors, brags about sexual assault. It doesn't make sense.

[WePurrsevere]

11. Here's why (IMO)...

A) Trump has convinced many that he's become a Christian and Christians believe are that whatever sins you committed before and even repeatedly after are forgiven as long as you ask God's forgiveness. So to them he's essentially a perpetually clean slate.

There's also something about most Fundamentalist Christians I've known that seems to love repeat offenders... umm... I mean 'sinners' who beg forgiveness. (They remind me a bit of abused people that I've known, including myself eons ago, who repeatedly keep taking the abuser back when s/he promises to get help and never do it again.)

B) There are two other reasons but they don't cover just the religious supporters... denial and very misinformed.

The Trumpers next door and down the road from us both truly believe that the sexual assaults, not paying contractors, etc is either "fake" or "blown way out of proportion". They watch Fox and quote only RW sources. The characters in the Trump's People SNL skit this past Saturday really reminded me of them. Unfortunately there's absolutely no way to use facts or logic with them so they'll have to learn the hard way.

[Dawson Leery]

6. The young ones are not as taken as the elders.

There is a reason the right wants to kill the internet.

[NightWatcher]

7. Destroy the GOP and the evangelical church, twofer!!!

[smirkymonkey]

8. Donald Trump: Human Wrecking Ball

[Alice11111]

10. OMG, I didn't want to see that image.

[anneboleyn]

12. Ack. I am traumatized forever.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Sorry! It is a pretty gruesome sight, isn't it.

[Alice11111]

9. I despise much of what the evangelicals stand for and what

they have done to Christianity. We do have freedom of religion though. It is so true that they violate the separation of church and state all over the place, as well as other laws, EEOC, for example, and they think it's godly. Many of the Catholic Churches do too, when it comes to abortion, as they did when they showed films in 2004. Those churches should have lost their tax exemption. The only church that I know of that has lost it, I think, was the one whose followers show up at vets funerals to create a disturbance...forget the name.

I guess the issue would not be a popular one for a campaign.