The religious right isn’t dead. But it is changing

The religious right isn’t dead. But it is changing October 19, 2016

We have reached the point in another presidential election cycle when everyone journalists say that the Religious Right is dead.

The conservative Christian political movement is not dead. Not even close, really. But it is more divided today than we have seen in a long time.

cemetery-690934_640There continue to be tens of millions of theologically conservative Christians who wish to ground their political behavior in their faith . Many will cast ballots for Donald Trump. Many will not. Some of their are passionately advocating for or against Trump. Some are ambivalent or merely dismayed.

We already know that a majority of Americans who get categorized by pollsters as evangelicals are going to vote for Trump. But a few fascinating questions are already coming into view.

  • How many white evangelicals will withhold their votes from Trump?
  • Will #NeverTrump evangelicals help the GOP preserve its majority in Congress (particularly the House)?
  • Will Democrats reach out to politically disaffected conservative evangelicals at all?
  • Will the pro-Trump and anti-Trump Christian right movements reconcile after the election?
  • What will be the major divisions in future iterations of conservative Christian political advocacy?

I’ll answer these questions in turn in subsequent posts. A few more brief thoughts after the jump.


Browse Our Archives