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In 2003, Bill Keller, the soon-to-be- executive editor of The New York Times, tried to explain the most anxious audience to the intersection of evangelical Christianity and Republicans.
In those days, Democrats feared the spreading theocratic politics. That reborn president, George W. Bush, is using post-9/11 conflicts with radical Islamism, and the struggle with homosexual marriage, to make America a kind of Christo-Fascist.
Margaret Atwood’s “The Story of the Handmaid” Rediscovery,,,,,“ Bill Maher’s missionary atheism in Michael Moore’s Wahrenheit 9/11 points to the left’s fear of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, moving America from a pluralistic, religiously liberal nation to some kind of mean person.
Keller writes for the same audience that Moore, Maher and Atwood are pursuing, but he offers a different, more accurate view: “The interesting story, then, is not that Mr. Bush is an possession of religious rights, but that his people are working to make religious rights a captive to the Republican Party.”
Keller didn’t know, but probably could have predicted that it wasn’t just a party doing the job. What is much more effective than Karl Rove can imagine is that the efforts made by the Democrats stomped on each other.
It turns out that people who call Christians gay wedding baking cakes called “America’s own Taliban” and that this is a pro-choice absolutist and does not make the pious people welcome on the left. Liberals, especially Roman Catholics, can preach the old bargaining of social justice and Traditional values have been broken.
This is not all Maher-Moore mean people, nor is it anyone’s plan. If a person sincerely believes that the country where the church refuses to approve same-sex marriage or prohibits elected abortion is a human rights issue, it has implications for the person’s demands on his or her own party. However, the purpose of sincerity has not prevented the emergence of very valuable high-end voter groups.
According to the best data on the topic, from the Pew Research Center, in 1994, white evangelicals went bankrupt by 65% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats. In 2024, Republicans are 85% and Democrats are 14%. For the Blue Team, more ominous among white Catholics, its division in 1994 increased to 61% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats in 2024.
Meanwhile, the main line Protestant denomination moved to the left and saw similar flights from the seats as Democrats saw at the polling station. But all the leavers will not go to the conservative congregation, and many people just quit completely. In this century, the main group that grew the fastest in religious life in America was “nones,” people without special beliefs or firm atheism. Those people have a more overwhelming democracy than Republicans.
Democrats have lost many Christians, and Christianity has lost many Democrats, which has a radical and complex impact on both groups.
Entering this alienated landscape street Donald Trump is the opposite of what conservative Christians are so attractive in Bush. Aside from Trump’s own passionate personal immorality and meanness, his political style—silly smearing artists and inflammatory bragging—the opposite that evangelicals have been seeking before. But the combination of partisan power and anxiety and anger towards the Democrats makes it very unlikely for the union between the most devout Americans and the “two Corinthians.”
What followed was Keller’s prior. Religious rights were indeed captured by the Republicans. However, as the Trump era evolved, another Keller in New York, the major Protestant theologian at the time, was not very interested in Christian behavior in politics, but politics did a lot of behavior in Christians. He asked in 2017: “Can evangelicals survive Donald Trump?”
His answer was yes. Yes, the idea of those evangelical movements characterized by Billy Graham in the 1970s was a doctrine of grace-based forgiveness and redemption from the 1970s, and paired with Jesus’ strong personal relationships-will survive and flourish. No, the label of “evangelical” may no longer be a theological term because it is completely confused by politics.
Another Keller was proven at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday. A service seen around the world is very familiar to any American cathedral member, especially heard from Kirk’s widow Erika, a message that could have been at home in a podium in Keller. Forgiveness to kill the husband is the definition of radical grace.
“The answer to hatred is not hatred,” she said. “The answer we know from the gospel is love, love forever. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecut us.”
Trump’s response is…different. When he said, “I hate my opponents and I don’t want them to be the best, he actually always respects himself.” But it’s a self-criticism with an advantage, essentially yes, Kirk is a better person than him, but still sticks to his status as a tribal chief, the same person said, “I am your justice…I am your retribution.”
As Trump shaky in his campaign-style speech, he thought of the naming of many of his enemies and any of his policy initiatives, the juxtaposition became clearer and clearer. If it was probably the biggest altar call since Graham’s satellite beam preaching forty years ago, it was politically unsuitable.
This is not to say that Christians will soon break for Democrats, or if they do, they will be welcomed.
But the pressure between a political movement was obvious, his leaders demanded “eye eyes” and a spiritual project, saying “When I arrived in heaven, Jesus was like: ‘Well, does the eyes look at the eyes? Is this how we do it?’’