A unique divide has surfaced among American evangelical Christians during this presidential election season — about half say Donald Trump would be a “good” or “great” president and about half say, “No way.”
On one side leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, support Trump and say he is someone who “lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the New Testament,” according to Falwell.
Graham agrees with Trump’s position on the United States’ nuclear negotiations with Iran and his stance on not permitting Syrian refugees into the country.
Graham said, “For some time I have been saying that Muslim immigration into the United States should be stopped until we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over.”
The other side
On the other side of the spectrum leaders like Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, suggest evangelicals’ support of Trump is “illogical” and told the New York Times that “these voters must repudiate everything they believe” to back Trump.
At the heart of the friction is the reality that not all evangelicals think the same way or place importance on the same things. For some, social issues like gay “marriage” and abortion are paramount and would be deal breakers if their candidate held differing views than their own. For others, mostly younger moderates, things like the environment and economic issues hold more weight.
Another issue is the discrepancy in what the word “evangelical” actually means (see "When you say ‘evangelical,’ what do you mean?").
For Moore, presenting Trump as “though he were a Christian is dangerous to the mission of the Church.”
“And then glossing over real character issues (is dangerous) when evangelicals have been very clear (on their stance) on character issues when it comes to politicians with whom we disagree on multiple issues. That’s sending a signal that, I think, hurts our witness,” Moore said.
Some of those character issues include Trump’s two divorces, multiple affairs and history of using vulgar language as well as previously supporting abortion rights.
But Trump’s bold promise to help “Make America Great Again” still appeals to religious voters who have felt abandoned by Republicans.
Most Americans have consistently said it is important to them that the president have strong religious beliefs but when it comes to Trump, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, there’s a shift in thinking.
Although Trump is not widely viewed as a religious person, he is widely viewed by Republicans (56 percent of GOP voters) as a potentially “good” or “great” president, according to the survey. But only 5 percent of the 2,009 adults surveyed saw Trump as “very” religious, where 37 percent saw him as “not at all” religious.
These numbers are drastically different from other leading GOP candidates. Virtually all Republicans who express a view about their religiousness and who think Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson would be successful presidents also say they view those candidates as “somewhat” religious. But just 2 percent of GOP voters think Rubio would be a “good” president and say he is “not particularly” religious and just 1 percent say the same thing about Cruz and Carson.
Results from the Iowa caucus Feb. 1 show that despite Trump’s “lack of religiousness,” he still came in second with 24.3 percent of the votes. Cruz won with 27.6 percent. There were a record 186,000 Republicans that participated in the caucus, with 45 percent of them participating for the first time.
Despite the dispute over Trump and other “religious” or “not religious” candidates, Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, told Fox News he thinks Southern Baptists and other Christians should absolutely take part in the election and keep a biblical perspective while doing so.
‘Trust the Lord’
“Think about an America where 60 million Jesus-loving, God-fearing men and women stepped into their voting booths this election season — not with the intention of electing a ‘Christian president’ but with the intention of faithfully living out biblical values in the public square,” Floyd wrote in his opinion piece.
“When we know we have worked in the processes and prayed for the Lord’s will to be done, when all is concluded, we have the peace to trust the Lord who is sovereign over all affairs.” (BP, Pew contributed)
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