I was on my way home from church yesterday and was listening to a podcast. We live a pretty fair distance from our church, and if Mrs. Brown is working on a Sunday, I turn to podcasts to make the drive a little easier.
On this particular day, I was listening to a Daily Wire offering featuring Michael Knowles and Megan Basham. The quiz show format was designed to determine which of the two was more informed about religion. The producer/moderator asked which Christian denomination was the fastest growing in the U.S. The answer was evangelicalism. Basham opined that since the advent of Donald Trump, many people have begun identifying as evangelical, even if they do not attend church. Basham offered no proof of her assertion, but if it is true to any degree, that is a lousy reason for joining a faith.
I suspect that Basham's opinion would be of more interest to the Left and its media allies than actual conservatives, Christians, or conservative Christians. But as we round the clubhouse turn on this election, these folx will continue to find ways to divide the electorate and create controversy. "Trump" and "evangelical Chrisitan" are popular, as are "J6" and "Project 2025." I predict that by mid-October, the media will be reduced to shouting out random words in the hope of generating some buzz. Look for your favorite host or newspaper to drop in "breakfast sausage," "eraser," or "coffee table" to enrage the masses.
It is with that in mind that we turn to a piece in Newsweek, breathlessly proclaiming that Christian voters do not care about Trump's religious beliefs. The article cites an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll taken earlier this month. According to the results, out of 2,028 registered voters, “only 14 percent of U.S. adults say the word 'Christian' describes former President Donald Trump ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ well."
About 7 in 10 white evangelical Protestants view Trump favorably, yet only about half say he best represents their beliefs. Even more telling, only around 2 in 10 within this group strongly associate the term "Christian" with the former president.
R. Marie Griffith, a religion and politics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, offered insight to the AP into this apparent contradiction. "They really don't care about, is he religious or not," Griffith explained, pointing to a shift in how white evangelicals now approach morality and religion in politics.
The words "white evangelical Christian Protestants" are important since those words in that combination are meant to portray a demographic that is beyond redemption. Furthermore, the inference that Newsweek is drawing is that these people care more about their political aims than their faith. The piece also takes time to highlight a poll showing Harris with a significant lead over Trump among Catholics.
First of all, I have almost zero interest in polls. I have been in the media in past incarnations of my life, created and responded to polls, and had petition-bearers darken my doorstep. One thing that people tend to forget, especially in an election as contested as this one, is that poll results depend on what you ask, who you ask, how you ask them, and even the time of day. Yes, the time of day can influence a person's response to almost anything. For example (and I know this as a former radio program director), there is a reason Sean Hannity's radio show airs when it does. Some may think it was initially given its time slot so as not to compete with Rush. And there may be some merit to that.
But there is another reason. Hannity's show airs during the afternoon drive in many states. People are getting off work and into rush hour traffic. They may be mad at their boss, angry about their jobs, and stressed over the daily gridlock. They have had an entire workday to build up a full head of steam. Hannity's brash, non-stop, in-your-face style allegedly appeals to that post-workday angst.
For the guy clenching his teeth and maintaining a death grip on the steering wheel, Hannity's show provides some catharsis, at least in theory. Shows like Coast to Coast AM (RIP, Art Bell) are only successful overnight. The wee hours of the morning are most conducive to aliens, conspiracy theories, and Sasquatch. So yes, you are being played. You have been for some time now. You were being manipulated long before algorithms started running the world.
My point is that a number of factors can go into anything to solicit a preferred response. I am not saying that all polls are conducted under such auspices, but I have seen enough to know it happens.
I highly doubt that most Christian voters, evangelical or otherwise, are deeply concerned with Trump's faith. True, some have equated Trump with King David, and others see him as God's anointed one, chosen for such a time as this. However, every conservative Christian I have spoken to across the religious spectrum who is backing Trump is doing so because of his domestic, financial, and foreign policies, not for his testimony or some confession of faith. There's also the promise of the realization of one of the Left's favorite boogeymen: Christian Nationalism.
If there is a religious component to their decision, it is that under a Trump administration, they feel that they are more likely to be left alone than anything else. On a more practical level, they want to live their lives and not go broke and lose their homes in the process. Those are the people the Left, its media, and the average troll do not want anyone to hear from.
Finally, if this poll indicates that Christians value Trump more than the tenets of their faith, how can they explain Hamtramck, Mich., Mayor Amer Ghalib and his endorsement of Trump? If evangelical Protestants are departing from their faith in backing Trump, would they like to accuse Ghalib of departing from Islam? Go ahead, MSM. I triple-dog dare ya.
The fact is that they would never be able to explain it. A worse fact is that they wouldn't even try. The concept that someone may back a candidate and not a convert is entirely alien to the narrative that they are conditioned to regurgitate.
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