Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T16:02:50.536Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does it Matter if the President Isn't Pious? White Evangelicals and Elite Religiosity in the Trump Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2022

Jack Thompson Open the ORCID record for Jack Thompson [Opens in a new window]
Jack Thompson*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
*
Corresponding author: Jack Thompson, email: j.thompson4@exeter.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Trump's unwavering support among white evangelicals seems a contradiction considering his seeming irreligiosity and well publicized moral transgressions. This contradiction raises an interesting question concerning whether Trump represents something of a unique case when it comes to white evangelical evaluations of elite religiosity, or whether his support among the group indicative of a new era of evangelical support for candidates that does not assess religiosity as it used to. Drawing on contemporary debates from the religious psychology and Christian nationalism scholarship, I use data from Wave 61 of the American Trends Panel (ATP) to test whether white evangelicals who encounter threats to their religious identities are more likely to view that God played some role in Trump's election. Overall, I find that white evangelicals consider themselves minorities as a result of their beliefs. Most importantly, these beliefs condition white evangelical beliefs about God's role in Trump's election. Specifically, I find that increases in threat perceptions lead to an increase in the probability of a white evangelical believing that Trump's election was part of God's plan. These findings provide a new vantage point for understanding why so many white evangelicals view Trump's election as a divine outcome despite the fact they are indifferent to his irreligiosity.

Keywords

Trumpevangelicalreligiosity
Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 762 - 782
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achen, CH and Bartels, LM (2017) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Albertson, BL (2015) Dog-whistle Politics: Multivocal Communication and Religious Appeals. Political Behavior 37, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, NH (2020) Latino Evangelicals: How Their Multiple Identity Influences Their Political Preferences (Doctoral dissertation). The Claremont Graduate University.Google Scholar
Ayris, A (2020) “They'd Vote Against Jesus Christ Himself”: Trump's “White Evangelicals,” the Construction of a Contested Identity, and the Need for a New Narrative. Journal of Church and State 63, 648–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, JO, Perry, SL and Whitehead, AL (2020) Keep America Christian (and White): Christian Nationalism, Fear of Ethnoracial Outsiders, and Intention to Vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election. Sociology of Religion 81, 272–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, LM (2002) Beyond the Running Tally: Partisan Bias in Political Perceptions. Political Behavior 24, 117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, L (2016) Ted Cruz Quotes Scripture, Thanks God and “Courageous Conservatives” After Iowa Victory. The Christian Post, February 2. Available at https://www.christianpost.com/news/ted-cruz-quotes-scripture-thanks-god-iowa-caucus.html.Google Scholar
Branscombe, NR, Ellemers, N, Spears, R and Doosje, B (1999) The Context and Content of Social Identity Threat. In Social Identity: Context, Commitment, Content, eds. N, Ellemers, R, Spears and B, Doosje, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 35–58.Google Scholar
Burge, RP and Lewis, AR (2018) Measuring Evangelicals: Practical Considerations for Social Scientists–CORRIGENDUM. Politics and Religion 11, 920–925.Google Scholar
Calfano, BR and Djupe, PA (2009) God Talk: Religious Cues and Electoral Support. Political Research Quarterly 62, 329–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, DE, Layman, GC, Green, JC and Sumaktoyo, NG (2018) Putting Politics First: The Impact of Politics on American Religious and Secular Orientations. American Journal of Political Science 62, 551–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, DE and Monson, JQ (2008) The Religion Card: Gay Marriage and the 2004 Presidential Election. Public Opinion Quarterly 72, 399–419.Google Scholar
Cassese, EC (2020) Straying From the Flock? A Look at How Americans’ Gender and Religious Identities Cross-Pressure Partisanship. Political Research Quarterly 73, 169–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castle, JJ (2019) New Fronts in the Culture Wars? Religion, Partisanship, and Polarization on Religious Liberty and Transgender Rights in the United States. American Politics Research 47, 650–679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castle, JJ, Layman, GC, Campbell, DE and Green, JC (2017) Survey Experiments on Candidate Religiosity, Political Attitudes, and Vote Choice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56, 143–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, PJ (2020) Identity as Dependent Variable: How Americans Shift Their Identities to Align with Their Politics. American Journal of Political Science 64, 699–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feuer, A (2018) What We Know About Trump's $130,000 Payment to Stormy Daniels. The New York Times, August 27. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/nyregion/stormy-daniels-trump-payment.html.Google Scholar
Gorski, P (2019) Why Evangelicals Voted for Trump: A Critical Cultural Sociology. Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics, eds. JL, Mast and JC, Alexander, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 165–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, JC, Rozell, MJ and Wilcox, C (eds) (2000) Prayers in the Precincts: The Christian Right in the 1998 Elections. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Hackett, C and Lindsay, DM (2008) Measuring Evangelicalism: Consequences of Different Operationalization Strategies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47, 499–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haider-Markel, DP (2007) Representation and Backlash: The Positive and Negative Influence of Descriptive Representation. Legislative Studies Quarterly 32, 107–133.Google Scholar
Hayes, D (2005) Candidate Qualities Through a Partisan Lens: A Theory of Trait Ownership. American Journal of Political Science 49, 908–923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, MJ, Weiler, JD and Weiler, JD (2009) Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, JD (1992) Culture Wars: The Struggle to Control the Family, Art, Education, Law, and Politics in America. New York City, NY: Avalon Publishing.Google Scholar
Jones, RP (2016) The End of White Christian America. New York City, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Keenan, JP and Pereira, I (2020) For Many White Evangelicals, the Supreme Court Makeup Solidifies Their Support for President Trump. ABC, October 16. Available at https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-evangelicals-supreme-court-makeup-solidifies-support-president/story?id=73153818.Google Scholar
Kinnvall, C (2004) Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity, and the Search for Ontological Security. Political Psychology 25, 741–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layman, GC (1997) Religion and Political Behavior in the United States: The Impact of Beliefs, Affiliations, and Commitment From 1980 to 1994. Public Opinion Quarterly 61, 288–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leege, DC, Wald, KD, Krueger, BS and Mueller, PD (2009) The Politics of Cultural Differences. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lerman, AE and Sadin, ML (2016) Stereotyping or Projection? How White and Black Voters Estimate Black Candidates’ Ideology. Political Psychology 37, 147–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolis, MF (2018) From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolis, MF (2020) Who Wants to Make America Great Again? Understanding Evangelical Support for Donald Trump. Politics & Religion 13, 89–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martí, G (2019) The Unexpected Orthodoxy of Donald J. Trump: White Evangelical Support for the 45th President of the United States.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez, J and Smith, GA (2016) How the Faithful Voted: A Preliminary 2016 Analysis. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
McDermott, ML (2009) Religious Stereotyping and Voter Support for Evangelical Candidates. Political Research Quarterly 62, 340–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, B and Wise, D (2014) Cueing God: Religious Cues and Voter Support. Politics & Religion 7, 366–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merritt (2016) Trump's Bible Fail. The Atlantic, April 15. Available at https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/trumps-bible-fail/478425/.Google Scholar
Mooney, MJ (2019) Trump's Apostle. Texas Monthly, August. Available at https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/donald-trump-defender-dallas-pastor-robert-jeffress/.Google Scholar
Mouw, T and Sobel, ME (2001) Culture Wars and Opinion Polarization: The Case of Abortion. American Journal of Sociology 106, 913–943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newport, F (2020) Religious Group Voting and the 2020 Election. Gallup, November 13. Available at https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/324410/religious-group-voting-2020-election.aspx.Google Scholar
Olson, LR and Warber, AL (2008) Belonging, Behaving, and Believing: Assessing the Role of Religion on Presidential Approval. Political Research Quarterly 61, 192–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, BI and Shapiro, RY (1983) Effects of Public Opinion on Policy. American Political Science Review 77, 175–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center (2012) Election 2012 Postmortem: White Evangelicals and Support for Romney. Pew Research Center, December 7. Available at https://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/07/election-2012-post-mortem-white-evangelicals-and-support-for-romney/.Google Scholar
Popkin, SL (2020) The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Posner, S (2020) Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. New York City, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Putnam, RD, Campbell, DE and Garrett, SR (2012) American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites us. New York City, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Reed, R (2020) For God and Country: The Christian Case for Trump. New York City, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Renard, M (2017) Myths Debunked: Why Did White Evangelical Christians Vote for Trump? The University of Chicago Divinity School, January 17. Available at https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/myths-debunked-why-did-white-evangelical-christians-vote-trump.Google Scholar
Scala, DJ (2020) Polls and Elections: The Skeptical Faithful: How Trump Gained Momentum among Evangelicals. Presidential Studies Quarterly 50, 927–947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildkraut, DJ (2017) White Attitudes About Descriptive Representation in the US: The Roles of Identity, Discrimination, and Linked Fate. Politics, Groups, and Identities 5, 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwadel, P (2017) The Republicanization of Evangelical Protestants in the United States: An Examination of the Sources of Political Realignment. Social Science Research 62, 238–254.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smidt, CE (2019) Reassessing the Concept and Measurement of Evangelicals: The Case for the RELTRAD Approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 58, 833–853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smidt, W and Miles, MR (2017) Religious Identity and Descriptive Representation. Politics & Religion 10, 186–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C (2000) Christian America?: What Evangelicals Really Want. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Smith, GA (2020) White Christians Continue to Favor Trump Over Biden, but Support has Slipped. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Steensland, B, Robinson, LD, Wilcox, WB, Park, JZ, Regnerus, MD and Woodberry, RD (2000) The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the art. Social Forces 79, 291–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, HE (1978) Differentiation Between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H and Turner, J (1979) An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict. In Austin, WE and Worchel, S (eds), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, pp. 33–47.Google Scholar
Wald, KD and Calhoun-Brown, A (2014) Religion and Politics in the United States. Washington, DC: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Weber, C and Thornton, M (2012) Courting Christians: How Political Candidates Prime Religious Considerations in Campaign Ads. The Journal of Politics 74, 400–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wehner, P (2019) The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity. The Atlantic.Google Scholar
Wellman, JK Jr and Tokuno, K (2004) Is Religious Violence Inevitable?. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43, 291–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, AL and Perry, SL (2020) Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, AL, Perry, SL and Baker, JO (2018) Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election. Sociology of Religion 79, 147–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, DK (2012) God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wuthnow, R (1988) The Restructuring of American Religion. Princeton, NY: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ysseldyk, R, Matheson, K and Anisman, H (2010) Religiosity as Identity: Toward an Understanding of Religion From a Social Identity Perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, 60–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ysseldyk, R, Matheson, K and Anisman, H (2011) Coping with Identity Threat: The Role of Religious Orientation and Implications for Emotions and Action Intentions. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 3, 132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, J (2009) Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Thompson supplementary material

Thompson supplementary material

Download Thompson supplementary material(File)
File 27.9 KB