Trump fills a void in an increasingly secular America

The key to understanding Trump’s coalition is the intensity of his support among White people who are and who claim to be devout Christians

#White #evangelicals,
who make up about 14 percent of the population,
made up about one-quarter of voters in the 2020 election.

And about three-quarters of them voted for Donald Trump.

Among White voters who attend religious services once a month or more,
71 percent voted for Trump in the 2020 election.

(similarly religious Black Americans, by contrast, voted for Joe Biden by a 9 to 1 ratio.)

Evangelicals grew their numbers by adapting to an America that had become much less religiously observant and devout.

The old Protestant Fundamentalism had been filled with warnings against sin, heresy, Catholicism, adultery, divorce, materialism and any deviation from strict Christian morality.

But preachers such as Jerry Falwell made the religion more user-friendly and less doctrinally demanding.

What filled the place of religious doctrine was #politics.

Those who consider themselves devout Christians define their faith almost entirely in political terms
— by opposing abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights.

This in turn has led to a great Democratic #dechurching:

According to Gallup, Democratic church membership was 46 percent in 2020,
down from 71 percent two decades prior.

The scholar David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame told the Associated Press,
“Increasingly, Americans associate #religion with the #Republican #Party
— and if they are not Republicans themselves, they turn away from religion.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/05/trump-religion-secularism-authoritarian-populism/

“'Stampede' may be an exaggerated word for the exodus out of the church in America, but no one can escape the reality. A date has been attached: 2070, the projected date when there will be more non-Christians than Christians in our nation. …

I want to take seriously the spirituality of those outside the church and outside the category of religious faith and belief."

~ Stephen Shoemaker

#churches #nones #dechurching

https://baptistnews.com/article/the-stampede-out-of-the-church-and-the-people-of-god-and-christ-outside-its-walls/

Title of John Pavlovitz's latest posting at his blog:

"Don’t Feel Guilty for Leaving The Evangelical Church. Jesus Has."

He writes:

Right now millions of good, faithful people are sobering-up and realizing that they have been lied to. The scales are coming off of their eyes, and they are beginning to see that what they believed was Christ’s church, has morphed into something quite terrible."

#evangelicals #churches #dechurching
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https://johnpavlovitz.com/2023/09/15/dont-feel-guilty-for-leaving-the-evangelical-church-jesus-has/

Perry Bacon Jr. explains to Rachel Martin — both nones who were raised churched, with church playing an important role in their lives — what he means when he says he's looking now for a "church of nones."

He and Martin both found the community, the commitment to shared values, that was central to their church experience important, and they miss it now that they are nones.

#nones #dechurching #unchurched #church
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https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1198509609/the-search-for-a-church-that-isnt-a-church

“More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and Billy Graham crusades combined."

~ Jim Davis and Michael Graham, The Great Dechurching

Hmm: I wonder precisely what might be spurring that exodus, which has grown even larger after 80% of white evangelicals and 60% of white Catholics and Mormons elected Trump in 2016?

#churches #dechurching

https://religionnews.com/2023/09/07/the-great-dechurching-explores-americas-religious-exodus/