How Donald Trump divided and conquered the religious right

By Trevin Wax | 7 hours ago

(RNS) It’s time for me to sit down for a nice meal of crow.

A year ago, I wrote a commentary here at RNS that tried to explain why Donald Trump had gathered some support in the Republican primary from “values voters” and “conservative Christians.”

“The one aspect that draws people to Trump is his fearlessness when it comes to offending the sensibilities of the cultural elite. We shouldn’t underestimate just how attractive his unguarded rhetoric is to conservatives who feel increasingly shut out of important conversations. Many voters feel like it’s difficult to speak to contentious issues these days (immigration, race relations, the nature of marriage, etc.). Trump’s way of ‘telling it like it is, no matter the consequences’ comes as ‘a breath of fresh air’ to conservatives who worry that ‘political correctness’ is preventing us from having tough conversations.”

The way I saw it back then, Trump’s bombastic tendency to “drive our discourse to the gutter” would weary his Christian supporters and lead evangelicals to turn away from him in favor of other Republican contenders:

“Looking on the bright side, I don’t see much of a future for Donald Trump with evangelical voters. I don’t know of any prominent evangelicals who have supported him. And the conservative voters who are currently enjoying the Donald’s roller coaster will soon be sick to their stomachs and be asking to get off the ride.”

Pass some crow, please.

http://religionnews.com/2016/08/23/how-donald-trump-divided-and-conquered-the-religious-right/