Growing up in Puerto Rico, faith has been a comforting constant throughout my life. The countless hours I spent in mass as a young boy, hearing about how Christians should aspire to lead a life of kindness and devotion, will forever shape how I act, and thus, how I vote. And I’m not alone; studies show religion is a more significant influence than news and campaign advertisements for many.
However, after 13 years of attending a parochial Catholic school, I find the strong alignment of modern conservative politics with the Christian faith quite perplexing — and the subsequent notion that left-leaning values and religion are incompatible even more so. Today, Trump’s support among Christians is much higher than in the general population; while only 20% of religiously unaffiliated people approve of him, 50% of Protestants and 36% of Catholics do. As a young Hispanic person who identifies as both a Catholic and a liberal, it’s hard to understand how this president garners the community’s support while leading a life that opposes many of the Church’s teachings.
Donald Trump launched his campaign in 2015 with a promise: to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Back then, few could have predicted this racist and pernicious rhetoric would come to dominate the political landscape for years to come. Still, I felt like anyone could’ve seen it completely opposed values of the Christian faith. Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and aspire to live according to his teachings. So, a clear contrast can be drawn between Jesus’ words of “Love your neighbor as yourself” and Trump’s policy of animosity towards Mexico, disparaging immigrants from Latin America as criminals and rapists.
Nonetheless, voters of the Christian faith played a large part in electing Trump in 2016. Though Trump lost the popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million people, he won the overall Christian vote, winning the majority in the Catholic, Protestant, and Mormon subgroups as well. Throughout his term, increasingly more White evangelicals, non-evangelical Protestants, and Catholics agree with the statement that “their side is winning,” further entrenching for voters of the Christian faith that Trump’s values are not only supported but encouraged by their religion. His support among White evangelical Christians is particularly notable, with over 80% voting for him in 2016.
Donald Trump relies on this continued support from evangelicals to have a shot at winning in 2020. They made up 46% of his voter base in 2016, and the electoral college amplifies their power due to their concentrated presence in swing states. And it looks like he’s going to receive it on Election Day; as of March 2020, evangelicals are nearly twice as likely as all U.S. adults to describe Trump as “honest” and “morally upstanding,” even though evidence shows he has said over 20,000 lies while in office.
Evangelicals are different from other Protestants because they see the Bible as inerrant, believe individuals must accept salvation for themselves, and seek to evangelize, or spread their teachings. Over 75% of them say religion has “a lot of influence” on how they vote, so if they see Trump’s views as a reinforcer of those teachings, they likely will do the same to spread them. This explains why evangelicals also tend to be more vocal in their political support for Trump, leading to the perception that all Christian denominations support Trump as much as they do. Though support in the community has slipped in the face of COVID-19, as nearly half of White evangelicals believe in easing current restrictions, around eight-in-ten still said they would vote for him in a survey from June 2020.
With 70% of Americans identifying as Christians, the community’s electoral power is undeniable. Trump knows this, so he’s repeatedly tried to use religion as a political tool in the past few months. From photo-ops with the Bible to ordering all states to allow churches to open during the pandemic, Trump is clearly focused on retaining his Christian support. But, while some Christians, especially Evangelicals, preached Trump’s recent picture at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the move was also widely criticized. Tear gas and rubber bullets were used to forcibly remove peaceful Black Lives Matter activists from a park in D.C. for the picture to be taken, adding yet another example of Trump’s hypocrisy to his long list of actions that violently oppose the Christian faith.
Regardless, as the 2020 election approaches, religious voters still approve of Trump in much larger numbers than the general U.S. population. In June 2020, only 39% of the general U.S. adult population approved of Trump, a sharp contrast from the 49% of Christians that do. The same survey has 44% of voters saying they’d vote for Trump if the election were today; however, the numbers go up to 55% for Christians, 58% for Protestants, and 47% for Catholics. Support among these groups has slipped since the start of his term, but is still considerably high, even with the rhetoric and policies Trump has pushed forward in the last four years. Now more than ever, it is time Christians reflected on what they hear every Sunday when deciding how they will vote in November.
One of the Bible’s greatest teachings is to “Be kind and compassionate to one another.” When Trump separates families at the border and puts children in cages, I do not think of compassion. When he refers to white supremacists as “very fine people,” kindness does not come to mind. The Bible by which Christians live states, “Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.” When I reflect on Trump’s visit to my home island of Puerto Rico, in which he playfully threw paper towels at a crowd and denied the severity of Hurricane Maria, generosity and justice are the last ideas that crossed my mind.
Quite contrary, the ideas of Christianity have always aligned more with liberal policies to me. I firmly believe my faith and my political ideology go hand-in-hand, as the religious values of service and equality that have been inculcated in me since a young age seem to align with more progressive ideas. The Bible says God put us in his creation “to cultivate and care for it,” but data shows that, while nearly 90% of Democrats favor greater action against climate change, less than 40% of Republicans do. It also teaches that “whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,” but the right has long opposed social welfare policies. Belief in God among Republicans is higher than in Democrats, but I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say all Christian denominations lean conservative or Republican. In fact, studies show that though Protestants, Mormons, and Evangelicals lean Republican, Catholics actually lean Democrat. More conservative Christians seem to rest many of their pro-Trump arguments on the basis of pro-life, refusing to vote for a candidate that favors choice, but what does pro-life mean when you’re putting innocent children in cages?
Lately, I’ve been seeing religious leaders criticize Trump, and even conservative Christian coalitions have started running ads against him targeted towards Christian voters. Yet, I can’t help but wonder what took so long. How were thousands of Christian leaders endorsing Trump in 2016, with his hateful rhetoric tracing back to the launch of his campaign, and why do a majority of Christians still plan on voting for him? It’s clear Trump needs the Christian vote. Regardless of their faith, people should consider what a vote for him in 2020 truly represents — evidently, it does not represent Christianity.
Image Credit: “Donald Trump swearing in ceremony” from The White House is in the public domain