April 22, 2020
1) Report on Trump campaign outreach to non-white evangelicals.
"Despite the president’s very low approval rating among minorities, and his record of racist remarks — from referring to certain countries as “s---hole nations” to telling minority women in Congress to “go back” to other countries — Trump’s evangelical advisers believe they can sway these voters to his side.
...
Ralph Reed, a longtime Christian conservative activist, said his group Faith and Freedom Coalition plans to spend $1 million during the 2020 campaign on nonwhite evangelicals, mostly Latinos. That’s more than 10 times what the group spent in 2016.
...
Janelle Wong, a political scientist at the University of Maryland who recently went to 60 evangelical churches as she researched a book on evangelicals and immigration, said Republicans have more consistently reached out to Latino evangelicals. On many issues, especially immigration but also the government’s responsibility to combat climate change and support the poor, nonwhite evangelicals “align better with Democrats,” she said. “This is the moment when Democrats should be building long-term relationships. But we’ve seen more effort among Republicans.”"
2) Evangelicals are the religious group most likely to defy and support defiance for pandemic-based restrictions on religious gatherings.
3) AEI report on religion and the coronavirus:
Only 28% of Americans have participated in online services, but ...
"Patterns of online religious engagement vary significantly across religious traditions. More than half (53 percent) of white evangelical Protestants report that they attended a remote worship service or watched an online sermon. Considerably fewer black Protestants (36 percent), Catholics (34 percent), members of non-Christian religious traditions (25 percent), and white mainline Protestants (23 percent) report having participated in an online religious service."
Should religious groups be exempt from the government shutdowns? ...
"There is significant agreement on this point across religious traditions. Fewer than one-third of white evangelical Protestants (28 percent), black Protestants (27 percent), Catholics (25 percent), and white mainline Protestants (19 percent) believe places of worship should not have to abide by government shutdown requirements. Notably, 34 percent of Americans who belong to nonChristian religious traditions say that religious organizations should be exempt from mandatory closings."
4) Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler says he'll vote for Trump this time.
In 2016, he said about voting for Trump, “Is it worth destroying our moral credibility to support someone who is beneath the baseline level of human decency?”
A reaction from David French:
"Many millions of Trump-supporting white Evangelicals no longer care about character (though a surprising number are still remarkably unaware of his flaws). That much is clear. But the story now grows darker still. As they’ve abandoned political character tests, they’re also rejecting any meaningful concern for presidential competence.
Listen to Mohler’s announcement, and you’ll hear a narrow political philosophy—one that’s limited to evaluating a party platform on a few, discrete issues. It’s nothing more than a policy checklist. He speaks of religious freedom, LGBT issues, and abortion.
Yet as the pandemic vividly illustrates (and as 9/11 also highlighted in recent years past), the job of the president extends well beyond the culture war. Indeed, there are times when a president is so bad at other material aspects of his job that he becomes a malignant force in American life, regardless of his positions on white Evangelicals’ highest political priorities."
5) Rich Cizik and Jim Ball endorse Joe Biden.
6) Are evangelicals obedient to Trump or just support him for his policy positions?
7) Is the Religious Left resurgent? It has shrunk in numbers but the smaller group is more active.
"Using quantitative analysis, we draw on survey data from the General Social Survey, the Public Religion Research Institute, and the National Congregations Study to assess the possibility of a resurgence among the Religious Left. In comparison with a speculated rise, our analysis indicates a notable decline in both the prevalence and engagement of Americans who self-identify as both religious and politically liberal. Not only is the constituency of the Religious Left shrinking, they have also been steadily disengaging from political activity in the last decade. Especially when looking at more recent elections, it has been those among the Secular Left who have been the most politically engaged."
8) Jack Jenkins new book on the religious left: American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country
Read an excerpt here.
9) Another new book: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion
This 3-volume set was edited by Paul Djupe, Mark Rozell and the late Ted Jelen. It's probably too expensive for your home but you should recommend it for your library.
10) Yet another new book: The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Evangelical Christians on Justice, Truth, and Moral Integrity
It's available June 1 and you can preorder it now. It's edited by Ron Sider and, as the subtitle suggests, has 30 chapter authors, including myself.
11) Hulu has a new miniseries about Phyllis Schlafly starring Cate Blanchett.
