April 4, 2024 - 4:30pm
America’s political Left is attempting to weaken the Republican Party’s stranglehold on the evangelical vote.
A new six-figure ad campaign from Faith Forward, a group which targets centrist and progressive voters with religious backgrounds in swing states, is a case in point.
“God said we need leaders who can unite rather than divide, who stand on morals and values and who don’t idolise dictators and bullies,” a new clip from this week says. “President Biden answered the call […] we pray to God what is true in our hearts: four more years.”
The group’s core issues include legal abortion, LGBT rights, climate and “the threat of Christian nationalism”. Its social media posts highlight Joe Biden’s Catholic faith and Donald Trump’s perceived moral failings.
This is part of a broader push to promote Christian critics of Trump and the GOP, as the Daily Wire’s Megan Basham has reported: the Evangelical Immigration Table has reportedly received well over one million dollars from secular Left-wing foundations affiliated with George Soros for a project aimed at promoting amnesty legislation. The After Party, a study programme aimed at “reframing Christian political identity” and led by anti-Trump evangelicals including the New York Times‘s David French, received funding from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a Left-wing philanthropy behemoth.
Evangelical Christians make up about 30% of Republicans and 14% of the US electorate. They remain solidly Republican, but their support for the GOP is slowly waning: Trump won 92% of the evangelical vote in 2016, but only 81% in 2020.
Evangelicals, or born-again Christians, are religiously conservative: they generally believe that faith in Christ is the only route to salvation, and large majorities reject the theory of evolution. Most reject same-sex marriage and abortion. The group is heavily concentrated in the Southeast, a conservative and rural region.
But there has long been a contingent within evangelicalism which is sceptical of Republican politics. Trump’s 2016 campaign thrust Never-Trump religious believers into the national limelight and inspired fierce debate about the political responsibilities of Christians — especially regarding immigrants and refugees, gay and trans people, and racial minorities. There was also substantial concern about Trump’s status as a thrice-married man and rumoured philanderer.
Christian leaders who publicly oppose Trump have meanwhile been subject to criticism from evangelicals and the occasional conspiracy theory that they are actually Democratic plants who successfully infiltrated the church.
Evangelicals are vulnerable to a Leftward drift on climate change and systemic racism, issues on which the Biden campaign specifically tried to court them in 2020. The racial reckoning of 2020 was particularly significant for the evangelical community: the Southern Baptist Convention declared that “Black Lives Matter” and elected a leader who ran on a pro-diversity message, and there has been a widespread effort among evangelical pastors to incorporate anti-racist themes in sermons.
Rather than catering to religious voters by moderating on social issues, as past Democrats such as Bill Clinton have done, this latest push aims to change evangelicals’ policy preferences by making the Christian case for abortion and encouraging a lenient immigration policy. November will provide insight into whether this strategy works.
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Subscribe“Evangelical Immigration Table has reportedly received well over one million dollars from secular Left-wing foundations affiliated with George Soros”
I am shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.
This is the actual story. Yet again we have another NGO funding activist campaigns with almost no grassroots support, thereby subverting and distorting the political process. If Biden wants to chase the evangelical vote, that’s his prerogative. The problem is third party activist groups funded with tax deductible donations and govt funding. There are an estimated 1.5 million NGOs in the U.S. alone.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/13/ngos-get-funding.asp
Right, it was bound to happen as there are indeed many Gnostic-type christians here, the surprise comes when one realizes how laughable it is to think that there are any Christians in America who are on the fence about Biden and the Dems.
Total Mystification. These aren’t Evangelicals. They are Gnostic Progressives capturing Church institutions and calling themselves Evangelicals for Narrative purposes.
You can tell because they’re using Doublethink by declaring a truth which is that Christianity is inherently apolitical but then engaging in direct political activism on behalf of Left-Wing causes.
.
It’s not even a new playbook. Every election cycle for as long as I can remember they have had astroturfed new gun control groups pop up claiming to represent gun owners. It gets old and it never works but progressives try it every time with names like “Americans for Gun Safety”. The current propped up group is 97Percent based out of LA. Here’s a free tip. Check who the board members are. That will tell you what they are about.
Well said. Progressive Gnostics have spiritually gutted mainline churches. Without the old people who stick around for community these places would shut down. Just look at the state of the once mighty united church of canada. Congregations dropping like flies.
….and let’s not forget the Church of England!
The Church of England has both left and right members in addition to a wide spectrum from liberal to evangelical in terms of their religious belief. There is little correlation between politics and belief.
Who actually attends its services though? It has become irrelevant, hasn’t it? It only clings on because it is an established church.
At the parish level the CofE is actually quite good and relevant. The problem is the current leadership trying to be relevant and trying to be all things to all people, thereby making themselves obstacles to the growth of Christianity in England. When they get out of the way, there is a slight possibility that their replacements will make the whole relevant again.
In England Christians are across the political spectrum; that is within individual churches as well as in general.
Do you mean Gnostic or Agnostic? They are very different.
What on earth can the “Christian case for abortion” be?
Doesn’t exist.
Danger to the life of the mother. There have been instances of women nearly dying recently, and they received abortions when their lives became endangered.
Most often cases involving ‘the life of the mother’ get addressed. But there are disturbing reports as of late of women (mis)using abortion pills far into a pregnancy, when they shouldn’t be used, without a doctor and getting into real trouble. The Progressive / Democrat insistence on expanding accessibility and ignoring the possible need of a doctor’s advice needs to be addressed.
“…large majorities reject the theory of evolution.”
I fully expect the adherents will be well-informed and astute participants in the democratic process.
There’s still Micro and Macro-Evolution. You won’t find many Evangelicals that reject Micro-evolution. That small scale changes occur over time and lead to an increasing diversity of living organisms.
But most are going to reject the Darwinian evolution chart with the transformation of one species to another via some chromosomal mutation. Probably because the Science appears too speculative. They will almost certainly reject the Anthropological view that Homo-Sapiens and Neanderthals were a different species of Hominids as opposed to one species of differently built Humans.
I wouldn’t worry that the inability to grasp highly complex biological information renders somebody incapable of being a good citizen or contributing in other ways.
I had a housemate once who completely subscribed to biblical creation. But really the best housemate. You just have to roll with things sometimes.
May I recommendd “What Darwin Got Wrong” by esteemed atheist philosopher Jerry Fodor and co-author Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini? They are proud materialists, but they also understand the many problems with evolution as a scientific theory. Well worth a read.
False flag gambit. Bait and switch. Those are not Evangelicals. It’s in the same category as the cynical scheme of Democrats funding the primary campaigns of the most wildly far-right Republican candidates so that the Democratic candidates will not have to face highly electable centrist Republicans in the general elections. Yes Democratic organizations financially underwrite the campaigns of the Republicans they think will be the easiest to beat. Not making it up.
Leftists hate real Christians. Nice try Demoncrats.
They might hate them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want their vote.
I am both on the left politically and an evangelical Christian (but not in America!!!)
I just don’t see how anyone can reconcile the two.
Pascal’s wager is fascinating amongst American Born Again Christians who vote out of faith in the realisation of a hazy future. The evangelicals I watch on the Internet believe that Mr Trump will usher in the Second Coming of Christ. I suppose then that he is a new John the Baptist, the bearer of Good News in the wilderness. They may well be right as we approach End Times with the liberals mobilising the post-Soviet states to edge Europe towards nuclear war.
I think that Born Again Christians outside America vastly outnumber thos in the US and I doubt any of them expect him to usher in the Second Coming.
“Donald Trump’s perceived moral failings.” The qualifier is a giveaway. Trump’s numerous moral failings – marital infidelity, fraudulent business dealings (Trump University, Trump Foundation, etc.), vicious and gratuitous personal attacks – are well-documented. Vote for Trump if you please, but don’t pretend that he is virtuous.
Ditto the entire Biden family – Biden’s plagiarism(!!!), and outright fabrications and smarmy financial dealings, Hunter, well we’ve seen all of his debauchery, Biden’s brother who’s been grifting off the family name for years, Biden’s niece who’s been arrested for credit card fraud, etc.
If we only voted for politicians based on virtue, the number would be miniscule indeed. (Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Jesus Christ …?)
Of course Trump is not virtuous, for heaven’s sake. The question is, what will he do once in office? Based on his presidency in 2017-2019 (pre-pandemic) and the policies he promises, I expect a far more robust foreign policy, safer cities, and the end of insane progressive social policies, such as wokism and CRT. Maybe he will prioritize children’s right to innocence, instead of the Left who think children have a right to dirty books. America may actually survive. It’s not that we like mean tweets or narcissistic bravado. It’s that the alternative is no longer democratic. The Left invented lawfare to criminalize anyone they don’t agree with, and they are still gaslighting Americans about the crisis of 10 million immigrants who are a massive threat to safety. Trump won’t stand for that. He is not in the pocket of one-world billionaires who want to give us 15-minute cities and worms to eat. In other words, he is basically sane.
I appreciate your willingness to admit the obvious. It’s true, as James Madison said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” But I think the Founders also believed that good government requires a modicum of personal virtue from our leaders. There is very little virtue to be found in Donald Trump.
And in whom of our politicians might we find this virtue?
None have been virtuous in my lifetime
Robust foreign policy? Like bending over for Russia?
When I read the title of this essay at first ‘Babylon Bee’ – the conservative website that satirizes crazy left stuff” came to mind. This during the week when President Biden refers to Easter as ‘Oyster Day’ and then proclaims it Trans-Visibility Day as well. Trump, not to miss a beat, referred to the upcoming Election Day as ‘Christian Visibility Day’. Moreover, recent polls show dramatic shifts towards Trump by Hispanics and Blacks both of which are actually more conservatively religious than leftist-rich-white-folk. Where does this author live?
I don’t think he proclaimed it “trans visibility day”. I think it has been 31 mars for a while. It may have been unlucky that it coincided with Easter Day this year, but it is not Bidens doing.
Biden and his team could have handled the situation far better than they did. Bad optics.
He could have just shut his piehole about it…but no. He made a big arsed proclamation on GOOD FRIDAY.
David French is the kind of ‘Christian’ who screams in your face that you’re a racist, and when you tell him to get lost he peevishly lectures at you ‘for not being very Christian’.