religion
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How Should Evangelicals Think About Trump?

Southern Evangelical Seminary
Founder, Editor-at-Large, The Bulwark
Genesis
Response
Penultimate
Finale

Richard Land

Southern Evangelical Seminary

January 22nd, 2020
Reliable polling reveals that approximately 4 out of 5 self-identified Evangelicals voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. More detailed polling data (confirmed by my personal observations from hundreds of conversations with fellow Evangelicals) reveal that at least 2/3 of those Evangelical Trump voters viewed themselves more as voting against Hillary Clinton, rather than voting for Donald Trump. Many of those Evangelicals voted for President Trump as, at the very least, the lesser of two evils. The vast majority of those Evangelicals have been pleasantly surprised by President Trump’s performance in office, as he has greatly exceeded their admittedly low expectations.
I would place myself firmly in that group. When I voted for President Trump, I saw his chief attribute being that he was not Hillary Clinton. I would never have imagined that he would really seek to keep the promises he was making to the American people. Let’s just look at some issues which are of paramount importance to Evangelicals. President Trump has become the most pro-life president of the modern era, exceeding even Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush. Second, President Trump has been the most pro-Israel president of the modern era, wresting that title from former President George W. Bush. He has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and unlike his predecessors, he actually moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, rather than just promising to do so. On religious liberty, the President and his Secretary of State have become eloquent spokesmen and advocates for religious freedom, speaking out for persecuted minorities of many faiths around the world and defending Americans’ right to expressions of their faith in public spaces here at home. And, of course, who could have imagined that President Trump would become the most aggressive and consistent president in the post-Earl Warren Supreme Court era in nominating strict-constructionist, original intent jurists to the federal judiciary system at the District, Appellate, and Supreme Court levels. As a consequence, I predict that President Trump, given the current Democratic field for candidates, will receive an even higher percentage of self-identified Evangelical votes in the 2020 election cycle than he did four years ago, and Evangelicals will vote in higher numbers. In other words, a significant number of Evangelicals who chose not to vote in the last election will vote for President Trump in this one. This, of course, should not be interpreted as a blanket endorsement of President Trump’s behavior, tweets, and disdain for his opponents. Vast numbers of Evangelicals, while upset by some of President Trump’s behaviors, understand that they shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good, and they shouldn’t make the bad the enemy of the worse. In other words, flawed political leaders are still capable of doing great things for the country.
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