May 4, 2020
1. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom released its annual report.
2. New study finds the link between political conservatism and doctrinal conservatism only exists in majority white faiths. "Re-examining Restructuring: Racialization, Religious Conservatism, and Political Leanings in Contemporary American Life."
3. Pew Research finds religious/secular differences on the question of who should get ventilators if they're in short supply.
"These findings are consistent with research showing that people who are not religious tend to prefer utilitarian solutions in a variety of moral dilemmas. This may in part be due to a lack of shared, formalized moral rules among the nonreligious, who are more likely to rely on personal philosophy and ethical principles when resolving moral quandaries. Religious believers, on the other hand, often rely on deeply ingrained moral rules and on guidance from religious leaders and texts. Religious people also may respond negatively to the idea of doctors “playing God” by choosing which patients should receive potentially life-saving treatments."
4. Pew Research: 1/4 of Americans say their faith has strengthened during the pandemic. Black Protestants are the highest, by 14 points over 2nd place evangelicals, at 56%.
5. AEI report on declining American religiosity. "The decline in religiosity in America is not the product of a natural change in preferences, but an engineered outcome of clearly identifiable policy choices in the past."
6. PRRI poll conducted late April: Trump's favorability from March (a high point overall for Trump favorables) to April dropped 18 points among white mainline Protestants (62 to 42%), and 11 points among white evangelicals (77 to 66%).
7. The #AllOfUs campaign, a coalition of religious and secular groups, is bringing attention to the plight of immigrants and their contributions during the pandemic. Founding members include the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, National Association of Evangelicals, SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and World Relief.
8. Providence Magazine: "Muslims and Evangelicals form Joint Working Group to Counter Extremism"
"On April 20, members of the world’s largest Muslim organization and one of the world’s largest Christian organizations announced the creation of a joint working group to counter two threats to religious freedom and to society more broadly: religious extremism and secular extremism."
9. Religion & Politics interviewed Mark Noll about his new edited book on evangelicalism.
R&P: "Has this mix of conservative political priorities displaced theology among self-identified white evangelicals in the United States?"
MN: "I’m not sure if the question is answerable since those evangelicals who embrace Trump, those who prefer Trump to alternatives, and those who dislike Trump cannot, in any sense, make up a coherent political constituency. From the outside, from the world of political punditry, it seems obvious that evangelical Trump supporters make sense as a demographic, and that they have a certain degree of clout in the contemporary political landscape. But whether that reality says anything about evangelicalism as a whole, or evangelical history, or how evangelicalism operates around the world, I think, is a very different question."
10. Q Conference hosted an online debate between Eric Metaxas and David French on the issue of evangelical support for Trump. John Fea posted a transcript and another version with commentary. Daniel Silliman noted on Twitter that Metaxas said reactions to the Access Hollywood tape, where Trump bragged about assaulting women, pushed him more in the direction of supporting Trump.
11. "Evangelicals for Trump" livestreamed an event on April 21. You can watch it on YouTube.
12. A fringe church leader who is trying to sell an industrial bleach product as a coronavirus cure (don't do this, it will kill you) wrote to President Trump saying that his product is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body” and “can rid the body of Covid-19”. A few days later, Trump had his infamous press conference where he asked whether researchers should look into disinfectants "by injection" as a cure. It's unknown whether the two are related. The huckster/pastor claims Trump got the message as well as a sample of the product. Former ambassador and presidential candidate Alan Keyes has been hawking the same product.
13. HUD agreed to pay $17,800 to settle a lawsuit over the denial of a FOIA request related to Sec. Ben Carson's participation in a Bible study.
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