{"id":13659,"date":"2016-10-17T11:56:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=13659"},"modified":"2016-10-17T11:56:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:56:07","slug":"donald-trump-reveals-evangelical-rifts-that-could-shape-politics-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/donald-trump-reveals-evangelical-rifts-that-could-shape-politics-for-years.html","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump Reveals Evangelical Rifts That Could Shape Politics for Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump Reveals Evangelical Rifts That Could Shape Politics for Years<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Donald Trump Reveals Evangelical Rifts That Could Shape Politics for Years:-<\/strong> When Jen Hatmaker speaks to stadiums full of Christian women, she regales them with stories about her five children and her garden back in Austin, Tex. \u2014 and stays away from politics. But recently she took to Facebook and Instagram to blast Donald J. Trump as a \u201cnational disgrace,\u201d and remind her legions of followers that there are other names on the ballot in November.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has consistently normalized violence, sexual deviance, bigotry and hate speech,\u201d she said in an email interview. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t accept this from my seventh-grade son, much less from a potential leader of the free world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the nearly four decades since Jerry Falwell Sr. founded a group called the Moral Majority, evangelical Christians have been the Republican Party\u2019s most unified and reliable voting bloc in November presidential elections. The leaders of what came to be known as the religious right were kingmakers and household names, like Pat Robertson, James C. Dobson, Ralph Reed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this year, Ms. Hatmaker\u2019s outraged post was one small sign of the splintering of the evangelical bloc and a possible portent of the changes ahead. While most of the religious right\u2019s aging old guard has chosen to stand by Mr. Trump, its judgment and authority are being challenged by an increasingly assertive crop of younger leaders, minorities and women such as Ms. Hatmaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose men have never spoken for me or, frankly, anyone I know,\u201d said Ms. Hatmaker, the author of popular inspirational Christian books. \u201cThe fracture within our own Christian family may be irreparable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The fault lines among evangelicals that the election of 2016 has exposed \u2014 among generations, ethnic groups and sexes \u2014 are likely to reshape national politics for years to come, conservative Christian leaders and analysts said last week in interviews. Arguments that were once private are now public, and agendas are no longer clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of a monolithic evangelical voting constituency is no longer applicable in the American electorate,\u201d said Samuel Rodriguez Jr., the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who represents about 40,000 congregations and declined to join his friends and allies on Mr. Trump\u2019s evangelical advisory board.<\/span><\/p>\n

The big names who sit atop organizations that function largely as lobbying groups and mobilization squads for the Republican Party have stuck with Mr. Trump despite the lewd comments he made in a 2005 recording, even though he was never their preferred candidate. He wooed them and convinced them that he would appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia, the conservative who died in February. To these pragmatic players, the election boiled down to only two issues, both that could be solved with Supreme Court appointments: stopping abortion and ensuring legal protections for religious conservatives who object to same-sex marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the evangelicals now challenging the old guard tend to have a broader agenda. They see it as a Christian imperative to care for immigrants and refugees, the poor, the environment and victims of sex trafficking and sexual abuse. Many support criminal justice reform and the aims of the Black Lives Matter movement. While ardently opposed to abortion, some are inclined to be more accepting of same-sex marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe next generation of evangelicals craves a less partisan, less divisive and more racially inclusive expression of political engagement that addresses concern on a range of issues, not just abortion and gay marriage,\u201d said Jonathan Merritt, a young evangelical who writes on politics and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The religious right\u2019s machinery is still primed to turn out evangelical voters for Mr. Trump, said Johnnie Moore, a publicist for many Christian leaders and groups, who serves on Mr. Trump\u2019s advisory board. But he doubts that the machinery will produce as it has in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think there\u2019s any way to get evangelical women in any force to show up for Donald Trump at this point,\u201d Mr. Moore said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several polls show that Mr. Trump is underperforming among evangelicals compared with previous Republican nominees, who commanded about 80 percent of the white evangelical vote. Mr. Trump received 65 percent to 70 percent of white evangelical support, recent polls show. A new poll from LifeWay Research, which specializes in surveys of churches and Christians, found that nonwhite evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump, 62 percent to 15 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Significant opposition to Mr. Trump has also come from evangelical leaders who are white and baby boomers or older. Many younger evangelicals said they took note when Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention and Erick Erickson, a conservative writer and radio host, rejected Mr. Trump early in the campaign. Last week, both Christianity Today and World magazine ran editorials rejecting Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kate Shellnutt, 30, the online editor of Christianity Today and editor of the CT Women section, said she had observed that \u201cthe millennial generation has a lot less patience for Trump.\u201d Of the 33 influential millennial evangelicals she profiled for a cover story two years ago, she says she can now find only one, Lila Rose, who is pro-Trump, and even she has been publicly critical of him. Several have been using the hashtag #NeverTrump, Ms. Shellnutt said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students at Liberty University in Virginia, which was founded by Mr. Falwell, started a petition on Wednesday criticizing the university\u2019s president, Jerry Falwell Jr. (the founder\u2019s son), for endorsing a candidate who is \u201cactively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose,\u201d and tarnishing the school in the process, the petition said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLiberty University is not Trump University,\u201d said Dustin Wahl, a junior majoring in politics and policy, who wrote the petition. \u201cWe don\u2019t stand with our president on Donald Trump. It\u2019s embarrassing because most people here realize that Trump is a joke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Wahl said that more than 2,500 people had signed the petition in two days, including more than 1,100 who used email addresses affiliated with Liberty University. There are about 15,000 resident students at Liberty, and an additional 90,000 online.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Falwell, Mr. Reed and Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, who have all stood by Mr. Trump, did not respond to interview requests. However, Mr. Falwell issued a response to the students\u2019 petition, saying that it represented the views of only a \u201cfew students,\u201d and that he had endorsed Mr. Trump as an individual, not on behalf of the university.<\/span><\/p>\n

The student body president, Jack Heaphy, as well as some students interviewed on campus, defended Mr. Falwell and Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the vast majority of students on campus will be voting for Mr. Trump on Nov. 8 \u2014 not because he\u2019s the perfect candidate, but because his policies align most with the viewpoints of students,\u201d Mr. Heaphy said.<\/span><\/p>\n

While evangelicals on both sides are alarmed at the vitriol and division, not everyone agrees that it signifies a long-term split. Some maintain that the dissenters will return to the Republican Party post-Trump, and those who supported him will be forgiven.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it is permanent,\u201d said Mr. Moore, the publicist who sits on Mr. Trump\u2019s advisory board.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the petition is one sign that the traditional reverence among evangelicals for authority figures has fallen by the wayside. On social media, there are calls for Mr. Perkins to step down for continuing to back Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inconceivable that someone could run an organization named the Family Research Council and support a man like Donald Trump for president,\u201d said Matthew Lee Anderson, 34, the author of several books and the blog Mere Orthodoxy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four years ago, he spoke on a young leaders\u2019 panel at the Values Voter Summit, which is sponsored by Mr. Perkins\u2019s organization. Now, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any trust in his judgment any longer. And that\u2019s the sort of loss of trust that lots of younger evangelicals are experiencing toward people like Tony Perkins, and it will not be rebuilt quickly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/17\/us\/donald-trump-evangelicals-republican-vote.html?_r=0<\/span><\/p>\n

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