#Faith2016 News Roundup (Early June edition)

(Note: This is the first in a series of weekly posts that highlight some of the best news and commentary writing on the role of faith in the 2016 election.)

Here are some highlights from the last week’s #Faith2016 news:

• Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press wrote an excellent article last week about evangelicals’ declining clout in American culture. She interviewed the regular religion reporter’s Rolodex of elites and experts, but she also spoke with laypeople and workaday pastors in Western Kentucky like Richie Clendenen. Rev. Clendenen, who has built churches in other countries and knows about persecution of Christians, increasingly believes that American Christians are targets of persecution from a culture that hates them.
• In this week’s TIME Magazine, Elizabeth Dias has an in-depth story on how a significant subset of evangelical leaders and voters came to support Donald Trump. This is one of the best Trump/religion articles I have seen lately. It is worth every penny of the $2.99 TIME is charging on its website. Or, if you want to be retro or countercultural or whatever, subscribe to the magazine.
• The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff’s latest article discusses the movement of female pro-life activists to the ranks of Trump supporters. I would point out that many leading opponents of abortion rights remain resolutely #NeverTrump. But this story not only reports the news, but helpfully poses the question of whether Trump needs their support or not:
  

  During the Republican primaries, Trump consistently flummoxed pro-life activists—blowing them off, praising their top foes, and blithely missing memo after memo. And he waltzed to the nomination without kissing their rings, suggesting that winning their clout ain’t what it used to be.

• Professor, editor, and commentator Alan Noble makes his Vox debut with a thoughtful essay about the voting dilemma pro-life evangelicals face this cycle. Noble is impresses as a strident conservative who nevertheless feels very free to call out obnoxious rhetoric and ideology on the religious and secular right. A lot of evangelicals will agree with him, but Noble is a good person to write this piece.