The second most appalling number from Election Night 2016 may have been the fact that approximately 80% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump (give or take a point). While it’s not surprising that conservative Christians voted for the Republican nominee, their support meant that they weren’t turned off by Trump’s rhetoric, his grabbing of women, his bigotry, his ignorance, his deception, or anything else that should have been disqualifying.
Trump has only gotten worse since the election. Despite giving evangelicals two Supreme Court justices (and counting) and plenty of other judges with lifetime appointments, he’s been everything his critics said he would be in terms of awfulness. That means evangelicals have to constantly defend their support for a disastrous president. After all, other than a handful of voices on FOX News, it’s not like pastors are bragging about Trump. They treat him like a necessary evil while simultaneously trying to paint themselves as above the drama, as if they’re not directly responsible for any of the horrible things he does.
But they are responsible. White evangelicals voted for him in a landslide and they continue to support him in roughly the same numbers. Even if some young evangelicals are distancing themselves from the faith and the GOP, most white evangelicals have no problem feeding Trump’s ego until he feeds them right back.
It doesn’t do Christianity any favors to say that out loud, though. That’s why we’re now seeing pushback from evangelical circles against the idea that they’re complicit in Trump’s atrocities.
