Immigrant-Bashing, Indifference, and the Evangelical Vote

http://religiondispatches.org/immigrant-bashing-indifference-and-the-evangelical-vote/

By Sarah Posner July 21, 2015

Two prominent evangelicals penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week, asserting that “candidates who actually have a shot at winning the presidency should understand: Immigrant-bashing offends not only Hispanic people, but also their Anglo, African-American and Asian-American fellow Christians.” They were speaking, of course, of Donald Trump.

The authors, Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, claimed they didn’t know a single evangelical who supports Trump.

In addition to Trump’s racist comments about Mexican immigrants, Moore and Rodriguez cited “many factors, including his revolving-door marriages and past support for abortion” as reasons evangelicals reject Trump. Undoubtedly his flip comments about communion and the nature of forgiveness might also be anathema to anyone who takes their Christian faith seriously.

But consider this: today’s Washington Post poll—mostly taken before Trump’s disparagement of John McCain on Saturday, but well after his June 16 announcement speech in which he claimed Mexican immigrants are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists”—20 percent of white evangelicals said he was their preferred candidate in the GOP primary, just four points fewer than Republicans and Republican leaners overall. Forty-five percent of white evangelicals identified Trump’s views on the issues as “just about right.” Thirty one percent of white evangelicals said his views “reflect the core values of the Republican Party,” although a majority (54 percent) of white evangelicals said his views did not reflect the core values of the GOP. Still, these numbers make it difficult to claim Trump has no evangelical support.

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