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lordsummerisle

(4,649 posts)
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 08:17 PM Aug 2016

The Christian Right and Trump

Amanda Marcotte interviewed Peter Montgomery for this piece in Salon. It answered some questions for me but I'm still somewhat baffled why the CR would support figures like Reagan and Trump, who weren't/aren't even religious but despise Carter and Obama, both of whom are churchgoers and in the case of Carter, very active in his church. I can only conclude that for these people politics trumps (sorry) religion. The interview talks about how David Lane is trying to get pastors to run for political office. Can anyone recommend a good about the CR? My head needs to stop exploding...

http://www.salon.com/2016/08/19/peter-montgomery-explains-why-conservative-christians-are-lining-up-behind-trump/

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The_Casual_Observer

(27,742 posts)
1. It has to do with their supposed opposition
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 08:52 PM
Aug 2016

To abortion. This is a bogus issue, the republicans always hang is hot dog on the stick in front of these people and they always fall for it. They will never overturn r v wade because its all they have keep these people voting for them.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
2. Psst! They're HYPOCRITES.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 08:56 PM
Aug 2016

Trump is a virulent woman hater and that's good enough for them. They know he'll do the right thing by abolishing devil drugs like contraception and closing abortion clinics nationwide. He'll get the slaves back in the kitchen where they belong, jobless, wageless, voteless, and powerless, just like the OT intended.

No, that has nothing to do with Christianity. Neither does the Christian Right.

Get it?

moose65

(3,164 posts)
3. I don't understand it either!
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 08:59 PM
Aug 2016

I was just a kid when Reagan was elected, but I remember reading something during the Reagan years wondering how a divorced man who never went to church was suddenly the darling of the evangelical right. I still don't get it - Reagan was an upper crust Hollywood type who literally had nothing in common with religious people. Same thing for Trump. Around here I am surrounded by religious crazies who just love Trump, and it makes no sense at all! Trump is the complete opposite of what I would consider a religious person. To me, Jimmy Carter completely kicks ass as a religious man, but the right wing despises him. I will never understand it....

 

tonyt53

(5,737 posts)
4. Because with evangelicals, God's words can be cherry-picked to suit the person.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:08 PM
Aug 2016

Go to a casino, and you'll see them there. Go to the liquor store and you'll see them there. Go to a strip joint and you'll see them there. Go to church and they'll act like they haven't seen you in ten years. Money speaks louder than the words of God evidently.

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,848 posts)
5. I'd guess that most of them are Southern Baptists.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:10 PM
Aug 2016

How are Democrats doing with Catholics? They're probably winning the polls among them.

It wouldn't surprise me if Democrats are doing better among some other denominations as well. Methodists maybe?

Southern Baptist density map:

muriel_volestrangler

(101,160 posts)
16. Hispanic Catholics have always been pro-Clinton; white Catholics have switched to her
Sat Aug 20, 2016, 09:24 AM
Aug 2016

over the past month:

White Catholics who are registered to vote split 51-45 percent between Clinton and Donald Trump in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, reversing their preference – 54-35 percent, Trump-Clinton – in July.

Historically, white Catholics have been a key swing group in presidential elections, voting with the winner steadily in exit poll results from 1976 through 2004. But the group broke its streak in the last two contests, favoring John McCain over Barack Obama by 5 points, then Mitt Romney by 19, while Obama won.
...
Trump was there earlier this season, leading Clinton among white Catholics by a wide 64-28 percent as he wrapped up his nomination victory in May. But the margin in this group has been quite variable – Trump ahead by 27 points in March, 36 in May and 19 in July, vs. +3 in June and -6 in the latest ABC/Post poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-catholics-swing-voters-redux-poll/story?id=41327137

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,848 posts)
6. Southern Baptists have a pro-slavery history.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:19 PM
Aug 2016
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention was founded as a pro-slavery denomination in 1845 after a dispute over the appropriateness of letting slave-owners be missionaries to Africa. The Baptists never were as anti-slavery as were, for instance, the Quakers or the Methodists, and in the two decades of the Second Great Awakening they gave up pleading for slaves to be freed, instead remaining neutral on the subject of slavery. Neutrality, however, wasn't enough for the slave-owning elites they'd attracted and slave owners insisted on the Baptists condoning slavery by allowing slave owners to be missionaries; this was too much even for the Baptists and they refused. At which point the Southern Baptists seceded and formed their own denomination.

Arkansas Granny

(31,484 posts)
10. I've had a couple of interesting conversations at work this week with coworkers
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:45 PM
Aug 2016

who are strong Southern Baptists. These guys are both in their early 60's and active in the church. They don't like Trump and can't believe that he is the Republican candidate and I'm not sure either one will vote for him. Of course, they won't vote for Hillary either, but it lends credence to reports that Trump is losing support among white males.

FSogol

(45,363 posts)
11. There is a movement in the Evangelical Churches called the Prosperity Church.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:48 PM
Aug 2016

People like Joel Osteen preach that being rich means you are on the righteous path and God gives abundance to the Holy. Rich = holy, Poor = sinful

Johnny2X2X

(18,745 posts)
12. Racism.
Fri Aug 19, 2016, 09:49 PM
Aug 2016

Holding onto racism is more important than anything else the the Christian Right in this country. That's why they could support someone like Trump.

dembotoz

(16,740 posts)
17. The local evangelical TV station has and always will be right wing nutjob
Sat Aug 20, 2016, 09:44 AM
Aug 2016

The news does stuff that would make trump blush
They make fox look honest and their flock swallow it all cause would their church station lie to them?

GeorgeGist

(25,294 posts)
18. It has a lot to do, IMO, with Republicans willingness to leverage ...
Sat Aug 20, 2016, 02:26 PM
Aug 2016

a shortage of critical thinking skills.

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