The Passion of Southern Christians

Josie said:

Curious if you remember what denomination it was?

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Have no idea. I just remembering my husband and me laughing at it.

Who cares if Trump is considered to be like Jesus or not. Jesus isn't real, Trump is.

Risky Thicket said:

Recently we've begun to see Christian friends here in Arizona question their rabid, maniacal support for Trump. I'm not saying they've dumped Trump. We do have friends from my wife's church, however, who have begun to question how much Christianity they have to give up to be a Trump supporter.

In the deep South where I grew up, where my family has lived since the early 1700s and where 99% of my family lives today there doesn't seem to be a conflict between Jesus and Trump. Most, not all, of my family and friends in Dixie somehow see Jesus and Trump as very compatible. Even though Trump's proposed policies will hurt the people of the Southland as much or more than the rest of America Dixie Christians are still on board. Maybe Southern churches are de-emphasizing select lessons Jesus taught when they conflict with Trump's plans for the nation and the world. I couldn't tell you.



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Source

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There was a sharp distinction in support for Trump within Evangelical circles. Part of it was generational, and part of it was "people who identified as evangelical" v "people who identified as evangelical and regularly attended church".

cpwill said:

There was a sharp distinction in support for Trump within Evangelical circles. Part of it was generational, and part of it was "people identified as evangelical" v "people who identified as evangelical and regularly attended church".

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The best explanation I've heard so far. Bravo!

SheWolf said:

A lot of this sounds like Republican Party platform IMO. Most glaringly, second amendment. How does that relate to Christian teachings? How does a balance government budget relate to Christian teachings? When I think of religious teachings about money, charity is the first thing that comes to mind.

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In (traditional, at least) Christianity, charity is private, and it is done willingly. A balanced budget fits within the Christian teaching on money as well (in fact, a bit more so - in order to fit within the Bible's teachings on money, a government should run a small surplus, which it saves for a rainy day). 2nd Amendment is.... less so.

We all know about the debate with the Democrats possibly being more generous to the poor. I don't want to have that debate, and I see them both as nothing more than political parities. I don't believe one party is more moral or closer to God than the other. It just leads back to the question, why are so many Christians staunch Republicans? Then throw Tump in there... why are so many Christians staunch Republican?

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Well, abortion is a big part of it - so is the sexual revolution, of which abortion is a part. When your basic social premise is to take Christian teachings and chuck them.... it's harder for Christians to follow along very far.

Beyond that, in recent years, there seems to be an active hostility towards Christianity from the political left. This has the effect of shoring up political support for the GOP from Christians in general as a kind of protector. In my church, for example we had.... maybe.... 3 active actual supporters of Trump. But the vast majority voted for him, because they looked at things like the attacks on businesses who didn't want to take part in gay weddings, the witch hunts for Sexual Revolution Heretics, the need to force nuns (nuns!) to violate their faith.... all in the service of the Sexual Revolution... and they identified with the people being targeted by the system. We have a lot of small business owners - they saw what happened to Memories Pizza and thought "that could be me". Fear and the belief that others despise you is a powerful motivator, and increases political tribalism.

:shrug:

If you wanted to understand better from your perspective, it might help if you imagined me asking "why do gays tend to vote Democrat?" Many of the reasons are the same.

SheWolf said:

why are so many Christians staunch Republican?

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It's cultural. Notice that it's only white evangelicals that are staunch Republicans, not black or hispanic evangelicals. Neither are mainline protestants or Catholics staunch Republicans. It isn't so much that Christian beliefs lead people to Republican ideals, but rather that people within a certain culture (white, southern, evangelical culture) tend to affiliate with that party.

CrabCake said:

It's cultural. Notice that it's only white evangelicals that are staunch Republicans, not black or hispanic evangelicals. Neither are mainline protestants or Catholics staunch Republicans. It isn't so much that Christian beliefs lead people to Republican ideals, but rather that people within a certain culture (white, southern, evangelical culture) tend to affiliate with that party.

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So, what you're saying is people put their politics before their religion.

DashingAmerican said:

So, what you're saying is people put their politics before their religion.

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No. I have no idea how you can interpret what I said in that way.

What I am saying is that political affiliation is cultural. Isolating religion and then pretending that's what leads people to a certain political affiliation is a mistake.