Republican
nominee Donald Trump took political mudslinging to another level this
week with comments that Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, is "the
devil."
"He
made a deal with the devil," Mr. Trump said of Sen. Bernie Sanders's
decision to endorse former Secretary of State Clinton. "She's the
devil."
The high school gymnasium burst into cheers, CNN reported, and he reportedly repeated the "devil" comparisons in Iowa and Colorado throughout the week.
To
some, this unprecedented name-calling is, in part, yet another sign of
this candidate's willingness to visit otherwise undisturbed thresholds
of American politics.To others, it underlies his appeal to "tell it like
it is." But the boldness of his quasi-religious reference underscores
the candidate's attempts to shore up evangelical Christian support: a
campaign-within-a-campaign that has shocked many observers for both its numerous faux pas, and its success.
"I
think he is expressing what a lot of Republicans feel," says Henry
Olsen, a senior fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy
Center, adding that no other mainstream American politician would have
dared to voice such a sentiment for at least the past century. "That
would have been the province of obscure right-wing publications back in
the '90s."
Although
Trump has assured religious conservatives that both his policies and
Supreme Court nominations would address their fears, his faith-related
slip-ups during the primaries left some Christian leaders worried.
"The
classic one was in Iowa when he was asked, 'Do you ever ask for
forgiveness of sins?' and he said, 'No, I don't need to,'" Pastor Max
Lucado, whose opinion blog on Trump's disregard for Christian principles went viral, told NPR. "I nearly fell out of my chair."
Although
many Christian leaders have published their concerns about the
businessman, conservative evangelicals' support for Trump's candidacy
has been strong from the beginning.
"The
near-unanimous support for Trump among white evangelicals is astounding
on one level but not surprising on the other," says Andrew Chesnut,
chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Although
the nominee's paper-thin knowledge and practice of protestant
Christianity are out of step with most Christians in the United
States, "his charismatic, almost messianic, personality and public
speaking style that promise to 'make America great again' recall the
type of impassioned preaching heard at many evangelical churches,
especially in the South," Dr. Chesnut says.
His
vaunted wealth also serves the "gospel of prosperity," a popular
movement in some Christian circles that marks financial success as a
sign of heavenly approval.
On another level, many white evangelical protestants see their own demographic influence slipping, leaving them open to invitations to "Make America Great Again."
"Trump's
politics of nostalgia ... meshes seamlessly with the desire of many
white evangelicals to return to a simpler era when the nation was more
homogeneous, more like them," Chesnut says.
The
effort to demonize the Clintons – almost literally, in this case
– began during Bill Clinton's presidency, when evangelical Christians unified their insistence on character in a national leader, as Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted in June.
To some extent, the support of 78 percent of white evangelical protestants for Trump
is business as usual, says Jessica Martinez, a senior researcher at Pew
Research Center. They have voted overwhelmingly Republican for several
election cycles, and Trump is the Republican nominee.
A July poll, however, found that evangelical voters expressed more pre-convention support for Trump
than they did for Mitt Romney in 2012 – with 36 percent saying they
"strongly" supported him, rather than "not strongly" or not supporting
him at all, compared to 26 percent with strong support for Mr. Romney.
Some
of this shift lies more within the demographics of American
evangelicals than religious practice or belief, says Mr. Olsen. Many
evangelicals are not college-educated, and many blue-collar workers
crave a candidate who promises moral and especially economic retribution
for the "establishment," something Romney did not offer.
Some
voters are attracted to Trump's hawkish stance on terrorism, Olsen
says, while others are convinced by his efforts to persuade "all
Republicans" that he will fill Supreme Court vacancies with
conservative-friendly justices.
Clinton's
high negatives are also a factor, as more white evangelicals say they
are voting against her than for Trump, says Dr. Martinez.
Yet
poll data suggests that more is afoot in the religious demographics of
this presidential race than the loyalty of these highly religious voters
to whomever the GOP picks. Voter interest in a presidential candidate's
religiosity has declined from 67 to 62 percent since since 2012, although the decline largely excludes evangelicals, according to Pew.
"He's
not perceived as particularly religious, but yet he’s still the
preferred candidate," Martinez says. "The importance of the religiosity
of a president might be changing."
Trump's
ability to inspire voters from some of the country's most devout
communities suggests that a candidate can effectively appeal to the
economic and social interests of many Americans without sharing their
faith.
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