{"id":109979,"date":"2020-11-06T14:47:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T12:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?p=109979"},"modified":"2020-11-06T19:33:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:33:03","slug":"heart-of-pro-trump-evangelical-christianity-rejects-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2020\/11\/heart-of-pro-trump-evangelical-christianity-rejects-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heart of pro-Trump evangelical Christianity’ rejects Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Images via YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I VOWED to post nothing about the US Presidential Election until it was done and dusted and a winner declared, but the news that the very<\/em> godly, very<\/em> Republican Lynchburg City, Virginia, has voted for its first Democrat candidate, Joe Biden, since 1948 is far too good to pass over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once described by The New York Times<\/em> as the \u201cheart of pro-Trump evangelical Christianity,\u201d Lynchburg is the home to America\u2019s largest evangelical university, and Trump \u2013 given the hysterical fervour with which he\u2019s courted the religious right \u2013\u00a0 should have won it by a landslide.<\/p>\n

Instead he lost Lynchburg City<\/a>. Not by much, granted \u2013 just 750 votes \u2013 but, hey, what a fantastic rejection of the septuagenarian<\/span><\/span> toddler, described by students at Liberty in 2016 as:<\/p>\n

One of the worst presidential candidates in American history. Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That line appeared a letter signed by roughly 2,000 students and alumni, after Liberty\u2019s then President, the now utterly disgraced Jerry Falwell Jr, lovingly endorsed\u00a0 Drumpf the first time round \u2013 and frequently since.<\/p>\n

Despite the distaste many students had for Trump,\u00a0 Lynchburg ended up voting Republican in 2016, with Trump receiving 50.9 percent of the votes and Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton receiving just 41.8 percent. This time round Biden gained 48 percent of the votes, while Trump got 46 percent.<\/p>\n

Lynchburg has had a long history of voting Republican, with the vote for Biden marking the first time the city has voted for Democrats since 1948<\/a>, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.<\/p>\n

Did revelations of Falwell\u2019s kinky sexual proclivities, his drunkenness and dodgy business dealings that toppled him from his post of Liberty President have a role in Trump\u2019s Lynchburg defeat?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess. But Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump<\/em>, told the Guardian<\/em> that Falwell Jr\u2019s influence has been overestimated and that:<\/p>\n

His fall does not change anything. Trump has built relationships with the evangelical base and the religious right leadership in Washington, and they see him as their saviour \u2013 God\u2019s hand is on him, he has come to save America at this critical juncture.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the sort of thing Posner was talking about:<\/p>\n