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Obama Was a Christian President Evangelicals Could Have Embraced (But Didnt)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/31/obama-was-a-christian-president-evangelicals-could-have-embraced-but-didnt/
Obama Was a Christian President Evangelicals Could Have Embraced (But Didn’t)
January 31, 2018 by Sarahbeth Caplin
A day of reckoning for Republican evangelicals is coming, if it hasn’t already. If there’s any sentiment in the Bible that can be applied to secular life, it’s one that is repeated in both the Old and New Testaments: you will reap what you sow.
The evangelical exchange of principle for power may have stained their reputation as the “moral majority” for generations down the road, and few people could have predicted this better than former President Barack Obama.
Writing for Christian Today, Michael Wear reflects:Obama’s understanding of and appeals to evangelicals have largely been ignored by both Republican critics and Democratic loyalists, but it was a major aspect of his political success… In 2006, a time when many fellow Democrats viewed George W. Bush’s success with evangelicals as a reason to despise them, Obama called them into politics, affirming that they did not have to leave their faith at the door.
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President Obama came into Office with plans to deliver on the promise of his campaign outreach to people of faith, including evangelicals. He kept and expanded the White House faith-based initiative, creating an advisory council…that included robust evangelical participation.
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Nevertheless, though he faced accusations of waging a ‘war on religion’ and ran as the first nominee to support same-sex marriage, President Obama won significantly more support from white evangelicals in his re-election campaign than Hillary Clinton won in 2016.
To be sure, there is no way for any president to act on his faith without harsh criticism. But history will show which leaders supported policies that were closest to Christ’s words —When I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me — and which ones didn’t (and instead made their lives more difficult).
History will show that Obama’s policies and attitudes were ultimately closer to Jesus’ message than Donald Trump‘s will ever be. Despite the religious language used by Obama while in office, he promoted his religious values without imposing his beliefs on all Americans. This administration seems to be doing the exact opposite.
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This belief excludes Catholics and most mainline Protestant denominations. Good deeds won't get you into heaven but proselytizing in public and denigrating other religions will. Such hypocrisy.
U.S. religious groups and their political leanings
...White evangelical Protestants also voted heavily Republican in 2012 (79% for Romney), which mirrors the leanings of many of the largest evangelical denominations. Members of the Church of the Nazarene are overwhelmingly likely to favor the GOP (63% Republican vs. 24% Democrat), as are the Southern Baptist Convention (64% vs. 26%) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (59% vs. 27%), among other evangelical churches. (In our survey, members of these groups can be of any race or ethnicity, while exit polls report totals for white evangelicals in particular.)
Catholics are divided politically in our survey, just as they were in the 2012 election. While 37% say they favor the GOP, 44% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (and 19% say they do not lean either way). In the 2012 election, 50% of Catholics said they voted for Obama, while 48% voted for Romney.
Members of mainline Protestant churches look similar to Catholics in this regard. For example, 44% of members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) identify as or lean Republican in the survey, compared with 47% who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning. United Methodists and Anglicans are slightly more likely than other mainline groups to say they are Republicans, while members of the United Church of Christ are more likely to be Democrats.
About seven-in-ten religiously unaffiliated voters (70%) and Jews (69%) voted for Obama in 2012. A similar share of Jews in our survey (64%) say they are Democrats, while all three subsets of religious “nones” (atheists, agnostics and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular”) lean in that direction as well....
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/23/u-s-religious-groups-and-their-political-leanings/
...White evangelical Protestants also voted heavily Republican in 2012 (79% for Romney), which mirrors the leanings of many of the largest evangelical denominations. Members of the Church of the Nazarene are overwhelmingly likely to favor the GOP (63% Republican vs. 24% Democrat), as are the Southern Baptist Convention (64% vs. 26%) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (59% vs. 27%), among other evangelical churches. (In our survey, members of these groups can be of any race or ethnicity, while exit polls report totals for white evangelicals in particular.)
Catholics are divided politically in our survey, just as they were in the 2012 election. While 37% say they favor the GOP, 44% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (and 19% say they do not lean either way). In the 2012 election, 50% of Catholics said they voted for Obama, while 48% voted for Romney.
Members of mainline Protestant churches look similar to Catholics in this regard. For example, 44% of members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) identify as or lean Republican in the survey, compared with 47% who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning. United Methodists and Anglicans are slightly more likely than other mainline groups to say they are Republicans, while members of the United Church of Christ are more likely to be Democrats.
About seven-in-ten religiously unaffiliated voters (70%) and Jews (69%) voted for Obama in 2012. A similar share of Jews in our survey (64%) say they are Democrats, while all three subsets of religious “nones” (atheists, agnostics and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular”) lean in that direction as well....
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/23/u-s-religious-groups-and-their-political-leanings/
