March 27, 2020
1) More from the Pew Research on evangelicals and Trump that I wrote about in the previous newsletter.
- White evangelicals are the only religious group for which a majority, 64%, say Trump is somewhat or very religious. The religious group least likely to say that are Black Protestants, 14%.
- Among white evangelicals, 70% say Trump is self-centered. Also, 69% say he is honest and 61% say he is morally upstanding.
- 31% of white evangelicals say they like how Trump conducts himself. 44% said they have mixed feelings about it, and 22% said they don't like how Trump conducts himself.
- When asked how much conflict there is between their religious beliefs and American culture, the two religious groups most likely to say "a great deal" or "some," were white evangelicals (66%) and atheists (57%).
- About half of US adults say Christianity's influence is declining in the US. The religious group most likely to agree are white evangelicals (67%). When asked about the cause among those who see a decline, white evangelicals most agreed to "more permissive attitudes about sexual behavior and sexuality in popular culture" (72%), "negative portrayals of Christianity in pop culture" (60%), and "growth in the number of people in US who are not religious" (59%). Among all adults who saw a decline, the most cited reasons were "growth in the number of people in US who are not religious" (60%), and "misconduct by Christian leaders" (58%). Less than 1/3 of all adults who saw a decline (29%) believe it's due to "Christianity is too closely associated with conservative politics."
2) Conservative Christians and the coronavirus
Conservative Christians are debating whether the economy should be a higher priority than the lives of seniors. Here is a summary at The Washington Post. At First Things, R.R. Reno argues the restrictive measures to stop the spread of the virus are the work of Satan. For those arguing life is a higher priority than the economy, see Russell Moore, Alan Cross, Damon Linker, Jim Swift, Tyler Huckabee, and Matt Lewis.
An article in The Conversationalist and a New York Times op-ed argue that cornonavirus denialism is linked to the anti-intellectualism of evangelicals and fundamentalists.
Pew finds white evangelicals are most satisfied (77%) with Trump's coronavirus response.
When it comes to personal behaviors in response to the coronavirus, however, PRRI finds not much difference among religious groups, including white evangelicals. Trump supporters are less likely to try to avoid the coronavirus, but the differences are not large.
3) Robert Jeffress tells Eric Metaxas that Tim Keller is a wimpy Christian.
