Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Are white evangelical Christians "real Americans" or off on a tangent?

Poking around in attitudinal polling data, as I am wont to do, I ran across a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) pre-midterm election poll that brought me up short. I had not realized the extent to which people who identify as white Christian evangelicals have become outliers in the U.S. religious landscape. Though they are often treated as, and consider themselves, the true representatives of "real America," most of us -- even other whites -- have distinctly different opinions on the conflicts of our time.

... With the unique exception of white evangelical Protestants, majorities of all other major religious groups have an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Majorities of black Protestants (80%), religiously unaffiliated Americans (75%), Hispanic Catholics (74%), non-Christian religious Americans (73%), white mainline Protestants (52%), and white Catholics (52%) have a negative opinion of Trump. By contrast, almost seven in ten (68%) white evangelical Protestants have a favorable view of Trump, including 28% who have a very favorable view. ...

... With the exception of white evangelical Protestants, strong majorities of every major religious group believe that Donald Trump has damaged the dignity of the presidency. More than three-quarters (77%) of religiously unaffiliated Americans and about two-thirds of white mainline Protestants (68%) and Catholics (67%) agree that President Trump has damaged the dignity of the presidency. This view is shared by less than half (47%) of white evangelical Protestants. A majority (53%) of white evangelical Protestants say that President Trump has not damaged the dignity of the presidency. ...

... With the exception of white evangelical Protestants, all other major religious groups believe that the country’s racial and ethnic realignment will be mostly positive. Majorities of Hispanic Catholics (81%), black Protestants (80%), religiously unaffiliated Americans (74%), white Catholics (51%), and white mainline Protestants (51%) believe that this change will be mostly positive, while less than half (44%) of white evangelical Protestants hold this view. A majority (54%) of white evangelical Protestants say that becoming majority-nonwhite nation in the future will be mostly negative. ...

White evangelical Christians simply are no longer normative. The rest of us have moved on.
...
At Religion News Service, Mark Silk disaggregates what exit polls tell us about the participation of white evangelicals in the election.

According to the exit polls, 26 percent of the electorate in last week’s midterms consisted of white evangelicals. Yet white evangelicals make up just 15.3 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to PRRI’s widely used survey data. What gives?

...As Faith and Freedom Coalition chairman Ralph Reed, who’s in the business of boosting evangelical turnout, told a National Press Club audience, “We had an astonishing level of evangelical voters cast their ballots.”

Silk opines that, when asked outside a voting location, significant numbers of white mainline Protestants and even Roman Catholics identified as "born again," making up the difference between known numbers of white evangelicals and their claimed proportion of the electorate.

This set of query answers is presumably a function of the strength of the generally held assumption that if a white person identifies as Christian, that means identifying as evangelical. So maybe the exceptional "evangelical" views PRRI names aren't so exceptional after all -- just not so denomination-linked as we might assume.

Still, it's nice to realize that even slim majorities of self-identified white US Christians aren't on the Making America White Again train.

3 comments:

Rain Trueax said...

Unaffiliated doesn't really mean atheist or agnostic. It sounds more like it makes its 'all Americans' are those into some sort of spiritual power. I really have come to dislike polls as they seem to say something but based on the question you don't get a real idea of what the polled person believes. It does though enhance tribalism probably. Maybe that's good. I wish I had one as it has to feel more comfortable at the least.

Mary said...

I hope this poll is accurate as it seems to show that sane religious people are in the majority.
I live in a city where many go to church or bible classes, say they’re Christian, say "have a blessed day" or when asked "how are you today", they say "I’m blessed" instead of thanks, I’m fine." Not knocking this, just stating a fact.

But I will admit to when I hear these responses or hear someone mention going to a bible group or that someone’s a good Christian or they’re a Christian, that my first gut thought is oh no, I bet they are trump supporters. I also think and they hate gays and minorities. And I wonder if they believe that the rest of us are going to Hell and if they believe God put trump in place to make America great again for real and what was God thinking!

I rather strongly feel this and I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that more mainstream churches do not speak up against this rhetoric, that makes me feel they’re all alike. The religious people online seem to be of this trump supporting variety as well

janinsanfran said...

Mary -- I think those who are religious but not"evangelical" are far less likely to equate their political leanings with the dictates of their God. Maybe a little more humble. And that means they are not as likely to speak up claiming a religious justification for their druthers.

I have just come from spending the morning in immigration court where 25 or so middle class white retirees packed the proceedings as a woman's asylum claim was argued. (No decision yet.) I am willing to bet that just about all of us relate to some religious tradition that urges care for the stranger -- and would be unlikely to talk about it. :-)