By Daniel José Camacho
The Guardian (12/15/17)
A large majority of white evangelicals voted for Roy Moore – 80%, according to exit polls – in Alabama, in the deep south, in a solidly red state. And they lost.
The results of Alabama’s Senate race are an omen for the future of white evangelical politics. White evangelicals, as a whole, are still flexing some political muscle. But their future outlook is of an embattled political bloc with extremist views and diminishing power to decide elections.
Moore was a fundamentalist Christian hero. He was removed from office twicewhile serving as Alabama’s chief justice: first for refusing to remove a 5,280lb Ten Commandments monument he installed in the state court house; then for defying the US supreme court by directing probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay people.
Once deemed the Moral Majority, white evangelicals are increasingly looking like they will be an immoral minority in the landscape of American politics.
Although Moore faced serious allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, involving women as young as 14, white evangelical voters were largely undeterred in their support for him. Nevertheless, they were unable to propel him to victory. The key factor: although most white evangelicals voted for Moore, they only made up 44% of total voters.
At first glance, some may chalk this up to evangelicals staying home. White evangelicals’ total share of the vote dipped in comparison with the 47% share they had in the 2012 and 2008 presidential elections. Yet the factors are more complicated.
According to the Pew Research Center, white evangelicals comprise – at most – 49% of Alabama’s population. Considering national religious trends in the past few years, this number is probably a little lower.
Moreover, white evangelical voters are typically overrepresented, especially in midterm elections, when minority and younger voters usually have lower turnout. This was no longer the case in Alabama’s Senate race on Tuesday night. …
(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2017. Open source and free to use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )
- Billy Graham’s Granddaughter Smacks Down Modern Evangelicals For ‘hypocritical’ Trump Support – Rev. Billy Graham’s daughter on Tuesday slammed evangelicals for their hypocrisy when it comes to the “personal morals” of candidates like Alabama’s Roy Moore — and President Donald Trump. The term evangelical “started to really represent, actually, a branch of Christians that seemed to be a little more conservative and a little bit more hypocritical, a little bit more willing to compromise on the personal morals of a candidate in lieu of what politically they could gain for their party,” Jerushah Armfield, Graham’s granddaughter, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. When Keilar asked Armfield about her uncle Franklin Graham’s recent tweet heaping praise on Trump, the evangelist’s granddaughter and wife of a pastor in South Carolina said she thinks he was referencing the president “wanting to bring back Merry Christmas.” She also suggested that the “War on Christmas” that Trump (according to right-wing news outlets) has “won,” is a non-issue. … Read the Rest and 4-Minute Video
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If you want to learn more about the history and dangerous fascist ‘dominionist’ belief system of the radical ‘Christian’ right check out Chris Hedges’ excellent book “American Fascists: The Christian Right And The War On America”.
You can also watch this excellent 2007 address by Chris Hedges on the danger of the radical religious right. The war on truth and the destruction of science is part of the radical Christian right. The movement is based upon the despair of those who have been left behind by the corporate economy.
He calls upon people to be intolerant toward intolerance; to stand in defiance of those who are not willing to permit others to have their own beliefs: 53-Minute Video
