How Trump And Race Are Splitting Evangelicals
The Rev. Billy Graham  the pastor and evangelical leader who died last week and is being laid to rest in Charlotte on Friday  built relationships across party lines  illustrated by the praise Presidents Bill Clinton  George W. Bush  Barack Obama and  Donald Trump  delivered after his death. But it likely will be hard for an evangelical Christian figure in this era to get the kind of bipartisan acclaim that Graham received in life and in death.
Americaâs community of self-described evangelicals  about a fourth of the population  is increasingly divided between a more conservative  Trump-aligned bloc deeply worried about losing the so-called culture wars; and a bloc that is more liberal on issues like immigration  conscious of the need to appeal to nonwhite Christians and wary of the president. The split in evangelical Christianity isnât new  but it appears to be widening under  Trump .
Now in office  conservative Christian leaders are strongly backing the president  even at times when almost no one else will. Jerry Falwell Jr.  the president of evangelical Liberty University  defended Trumpâs controversial comments in the wake of the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville  Virginia. Amid allegations that  Trump  had an extramarital affair  Franklin Graham  Billy Grahamâs son and head of the non-profit Samaritanâs Purse  downplayed the controversy.
In a recent New York Times op-ed  David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network cast  Trump  as Godâs gift to evangelical Christians  arguing  âThe Bible is replete with examples of flawed individuals being used to accomplish Godâs will.â Congressional Republicans often defend the president  but few compare him to biblical figures.
Why are influential figures in the white evangelical community so willing to align themselves with  Trump ? Well  first of all   Trump  remains popular with white evangelical voters. A Pew survey from December found that 61 percent of white evangelicals approved of Trumpâs job performance  compared to 32 percent of voters overall. (This was a substantial decline from  Trumpâs  78 percent approval among white evangelicals in February 2017  but they are are still one of the most pro-Trump blocs in the electorate.)
Secondly  on policy issues that some white evangelical leaders and activists care passionately about   Trump  has delivered.  He  has embraced the GOP effort to block any federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood  signed into law a provision that makes it easier for states to keep their funds from being used at Planned Parenthood clinics  reversed an Obama administration policy that directed schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom of whichever gender they identify with and backed a push to allow ministers to formally endorse candidates without the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
âConservative evangelicals will acknowledge that  Trump  has problems  but  he âs moving forward policy on the issues they care about  and in a sense thatâs all that matters for them â said Richard Flory  a University of Southern California sociologist focusing on religion. â Trump  is helping with conservative evangelicalsâ broader goal of keeping America an essentially Christian nation  with the moral values that white Christians support.â
Broadly  Trump and his administration have aligned with conservative Christians who argue that their traditional values on issues like gay rights are ignored in an increasingly liberal culture. âGeorge W. Bush was the evangelical candidate in 2000: He pushed traditional conservative policies  but he doesnât come close to  Mr. Trumpâs  courageous blunt strokes in defense of evangelicals â wrote Brody.  Trump  âeasily wins the unofficial label of âmost evangelical-friendly United States president ever.ââ
Brody may have an argument â but only if you limit your definition of evangelicals to the traditionally Republican  mostly non-Hispanic white camp. Since  Trump  has been in office  many prominent evangelical leaders  white and nonwhite  have criticized  his  cutbacks in the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S.  the presidentâs alleged derogatory comments about immigrants from âshithole countriesâ and  his  decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program  which protected âDreamers â or undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children  from deportation.
During the 2016 campaign  many high-profile evangelical pastors kept their distance from the candidate. In one case  it was reported during the campaign that Joel Osteen  who runs a megachurch in the Houston area with nationally broadcast services  was endorsing  Trump . In response  the pastor put out a statement declaring that was not true  adhering to his pattern of keeping a low-profile on political issues.
Itâs not that differences among evangelical leaders didnât exist before  but they seem more evident with  Trump  in the White House. And the demographic changes only exacerbate them. On immigration policy in particular â an issue that Falwell and Franklin Graham have not publicly disputed  Trump  on â the sizable nonwhite segment of the evangelical community has obvious implications.
âEvangelicals are very concerned about this  especially because so many evangelical congregations have Dreamers as part of our churches â Russell Moore  a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention  told USA Today recently in explaining why he and other evangelicals were pressing  Trump  to resolve the DACA issue.
For leaders who are focused on evangelism â that is  bringing more people to evangelical Christianity and keeping them engaged â embracing  Trump  and  his  controversial stances on immigration could actually be something of a liability. In contrast  several of  Trumpâs  strongest defenders in the evangelical community  like Falwell and Graham  donât run actual churches.
The Rev. Billy Graham  the pastor and evangelical leader who died last week and is being laid to rest in Charlotte on Friday  built relationships across party lines  illustrated by the praise Presidents Bill Clinton  George W. Bush  Barack Obama and   [TGT] delivered after  [TGT]  death. But it likely will be hard for an evangelical Christian figure in this era to get the kind of bipartisan acclaim that Graham received in life and in death.
Americaâs community of self-described evangelicals  about a fourth of the population  is increasingly divided between a more conservative  Trump-aligned bloc deeply worried about losing the so-called culture wars; and a bloc that is more liberal on issues like immigration  conscious of the need to appeal to nonwhite Christians and wary of the president. The split in evangelical Christianity isnât new  but it appears to be widening under  [TGT]  .
Now in office  conservative Christian leaders are strongly backing the president  even at times when almost no one else will. Jerry Falwell Jr.  the president of evangelical Liberty University  defended Trumpâs controversial comments in the wake of the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville  Virginia. Amid allegations that  Trump  had an extramarital affair  Franklin Graham  Billy Grahamâs son and head of the non-profit Samaritanâs Purse  downplayed the controversy.
In a recent New York Times op-ed  David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network cast  Trump  as Godâs gift to evangelical Christians  arguing  âThe Bible is replete with examples of flawed individuals being used to accomplish Godâs will.â Congressional Republicans often defend the president  but few compare him to biblical figures.
Why are influential figures in the white evangelical community so willing to align themselves with  [TGT]  ? Well  first of all    [TGT] remains popular with white evangelical voters. A Pew survey from December found that 61 percent of white evangelicals approved of Trumpâs job performance  compared to 32 percent of voters overall. (This was a substantial decline from  Trumpâs  78 percent approval among white evangelicals in February 2017  but they are are still one of the most pro-Trump blocs in the electorate.)
Secondly  on policy issues that some white evangelical leaders and activists care passionately about   Trump  has delivered.  He  has embraced the GOP effort to block any federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood  signed into law a provision that makes it easier for states to keep their funds from being used at Planned Parenthood clinics  reversed an Obama administration policy that directed schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom of whichever gender they identify with and backed a push to allow ministers to formally endorse candidates without the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
âConservative evangelicals will acknowledge that  Trump  has problems  but  he âs moving forward policy on the issues they care about  and in a sense thatâs all that matters for them â said Richard Flory  a University of Southern California sociologist focusing on religion. â Trump  is helping with conservative evangelicalsâ broader goal of keeping America an essentially Christian nation  with the moral values that white Christians support.â
Broadly  Trump and his administration have aligned with conservative Christians who argue that their traditional values on issues like gay rights are ignored in an increasingly liberal culture. âGeorge W. Bush was the evangelical candidate in 2000: He pushed traditional conservative policies  but he doesnât come close to  Mr. Trumpâs  courageous blunt strokes in defense of evangelicals â wrote Brody.  Trump  âeasily wins the unofficial label of âmost evangelical-friendly United States president ever.ââ
Brody may have an argument â but only if you limit your definition of evangelicals to the traditionally Republican  mostly non-Hispanic white camp. Since  Trump  has been in office  many prominent evangelical leaders  white and nonwhite  have criticized  his  cutbacks in the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S.  the presidentâs alleged derogatory comments about immigrants from âshithole countriesâ and  his  decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program  which protected âDreamers â or undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children  from deportation.
During the 2016 campaign  many high-profile evangelical pastors kept their distance from the candidate. In one case  it was reported during the campaign that Joel Osteen  who runs a megachurch in the Houston area with nationally broadcast services  was endorsing  Trump . In response  the pastor put out a statement declaring that was not true  adhering to his pattern of keeping a low-profile on political issues.
Itâs not that differences among evangelical leaders didnât exist before  but they seem more evident with  Trump  in the White House. And the demographic changes only exacerbate them. On immigration policy in particular â an issue that Falwell and Franklin Graham have not publicly disputed  Trump  on â the sizable nonwhite segment of the evangelical community has obvious implications.
âEvangelicals are very concerned about this  especially because so many evangelical congregations have Dreamers as part of our churches â Russell Moore  a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention  told USA Today recently in explaining why he and other evangelicals were pressing  Trump  to resolve the DACA issue.
For leaders who are focused on evangelism â that is  bringing more people to evangelical Christianity and keeping them engaged â embracing  Trump  and  his  controversial stances on immigration could actually be something of a liability. In contrast  several of  Trumpâs  strongest defenders in the evangelical community  like Falwell and Graham  donât run actual churches.