Even though the economy was the decisive issue in the US presidential election, religious affiliations definitely influenced the election result.
That and the thesis that USA “a religiously divided country” are, said the German sociologist of religion Detlef Pollack in an interview with the cooperation editorial team of Austrian church newspapers (current edition). Kathpress explained.
Conservatives see Trump as a “savior”
Conservative Christians see themselves put on the defensive by the social developments of the past decades and Donald Trump as their “savior” who has already “delivered” in his first term in office. Pollack pointed out that the majority of members of minority religions and non-religious people, whose proportion in the USA has risen sharply in recent years, voted for Harris.
In terms of religious sociology, the preferences in the US election were clearly distributed, the Münster scientist pointed out. According to post-election polls, 60 percent of Protestant Christians voted for Trump, less than 40 percent for Harris. Among evangelicals it was even around 80 percent. The majority of Catholics also chose the Republican. “So in terms of voting preferences, you can talk about a religious divide that runs through the country,” Pollack said.
“Finally leave the losing position”
Conservative Christians, especially evangelicals, have had the feeling of being disrespected by the US public and media for many decades. They even considered themselves the most persecuted group in America, more disadvantaged than African Americans or Muslims, Pollack said.
He cited the abolition of compulsory prayer in schools in the 1960s and the approval of abortion in 1973 as examples of the impression among conservative Christians “that the moral foundations of their lives have been taken away from them by the liberal consensus of values of the elites on the East and West Coasts should be”. If this still large population group in the USA now allies itself with Trump, “it will be so that they can finally leave their loser position.”
Trump himself does not behave like a Christian
In his first term, the Republican strengthened conservative positions and fulfilled expectations in this regard, recalled Pollack: Trump appointed conservative judges on the Supreme Court and maintained his opposition to abortion. The fact that Trump himself doesn’t behave like a Christian doesn’t bother conservative Christians. “Their argument is: God has many ways to achieve his purposes.”
King David was also chosen by God, even though he was a sinner and even sent an officer of his army to death so that he could take his wife into his harem. “The ways of God are inscrutable,” is how the religious sociologist described this attitude towards Trump.
Liberals are turning their backs on the church
Trump also scores points on the issue of migration. With the border wall between the USA and Mexico, which began during his first term, he wanted to “serve the white evangelicals and the white middle classes.” It’s not just religion that plays a role, but also ethnicity, as Pollack explained: “It’s white nationalists who fear losing their dominance and who take the position that they founded the country and therefore it actually belongs to them.” For them, the slogan “Make America Great Again” means that things should go back to the way they once were, when white industrial workers still represented the backbone of America’s economic prosperity.
At the same time, the proportion of non-religious people in the states is increasing. According to Pollack’s assessment, more liberal Christians in the USA will turn their backs on the churches even more than before. The now victorious combination of politics and religion repulses many people – “especially those who are not so religious.”