FILE – Hats reading a variety of slogans, including “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president,” are sold at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Vandalia, Ohio, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski , File)

After former President Donald Trump delivered his victory speech Wednesday morning at the Palm Beach Convention Center, dozens of supporters gathered in a lobby to sing “How big are you” reciting from memory the words and harmonies of a classic hymn, popular among evangelical Christians. It was a fitting coda to an election in which Trump won back the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of more than 120,000 voters. That level of support — among a group that represented about 20 percent of the total electorate — echoes the staggering evangelical support Trump received in 2020. Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas, one of Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters Trump since the 2016 campaign. , called the election a “great victory”.
“Yes, there have been some important faith issues for evangelicals, but evangelicals are Americans too.” Jeffress said. “They care about immigration, they care about the economy.”
Some critics of Trump fear he will implement a Christian nationalist agenda that they see as giving Christians a privileged position in the country and disregarding the separation of church and state. Even if some of the administration’s expressions of religion are in rhetoric rather than policy, that may have an impact in a country that is more secular and religiously diverse than in past generations, Andrew said. Whitehead, author of the book. “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.”
“For those who do not embrace that expression of Christianity or the Christian religion or any religion, they will feel marked as ‘other’ and not truly American.” said Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis. Whitehead anticipated that a Christian nationalist outlook would likely motivate restrictive immigration policies on the grounds of protecting traditional American culture, such as the first Trump administration’s ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries. Jeffress dismissed the concerns of those predicting a Christian Nationalist administration.
“People who are not Christians are extremely worried that he will establish some kind of oppressive theocracy. He has no interest in doing that.” Jeffress said, noting that Trump has shown no interest in banning same-sex marriage or imposing an outright ban on abortion. Trump’s strongest supporters among evangelical leaders can probably expect the kind of access to the White House that they had in Trump’s first term. Trump proclaimed a sense of divine mandate.
“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason.” Trump said in his victory speech, referring to widespread proclamations among evangelical supporters that he received miraculous divine protection in the near-fatal assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. “And that reason was to save our country and bring America back to greatness.”
During the campaign, Trump engaged “protect Christians in our schools, in our military and in our government” and in “our public market”. Many battles between church and state in recent years have focused on Christian symbols in public places, such as the display of crosses. The Republican platform pledged to defend both Christians and Jews facing persecution. Although it included a general commitment to protect the worship of all faith groups, these were the only two singled out by name. The platform also supported the right to “Pray and read the Bible at school.”
Trump pledges to support other evangelical priorities, such as support for Israel and a rejection of transgender rights, saying: “God created two kinds, male and female.” Evangelicals were dismayed that Trump distanced himself from the strictest anti-abortion proposals, although evangelical leaders considered Trump preferable to Harris’ strong support for abortion rights. Pro-Trump rallies have featured expressions that have been embraced by Christian nationalists, such as the chant “God Bless the USA” Many at Trump rallies wear shirts that proclaim: “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.”
Evangelical support for Trump initially took many by surprise, given his casino adventures, multiple marriages, allegations of sexual misconduct and, more recently, his central role in fueling the 2021 Capitol uprising and his conviction on fraud charges . But many supporters dispute those charges or see him as an imperfect but powerful champion.
“People support President Trump not for his piety, but for his policies” Jeffress said. John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who wrote a book about evangelical support for Trump in his 2016 campaign, said the persistence of that support is not surprising. During this campaign, Fea said she spoke to evangelicals who were uncomfortable with Trump. They were “looking for some reason to vote for Harris,” such as some moderation on abortion. “I don’t think Harris was giving them much.”
It wasn’t just white, non-Hispanic evangelicals supporting Trump. So did about half of Latino evangelicals and about 6 in 10 white Catholics, according to AP VoteCast. Overall, about 6 in 10 Mormons also supported the former president. Pastor Abraham Rivera of La Puerta Life Center in North Miami, Florida, attributed Trump’s popularity among all Latinos, and especially evangelicals, to their conservative values ​​about morality and family.
“The issue of gender identity that the left is pushing a lot, I think is alienating a lot of Latino evangelicals,” Rivera said. Members of his congregation have expressed some concerns about Trump’s “personality or things he says” but not his policies, Rivera said. He expects the frequent contacts Latino evangelical leaders had with the first Trump administration to continue, giving them a voice. Instead, he felt doors “they were closed” in the Biden White House, who seemed to disregard the values ​​of many conservatives. But Rivera added: “The idea that an evil Christian right is going to take over is just crazy.”
Fea said a Christian nationalist agenda may be more rhetoric than substance at the national level – while he said there are real cases of this at the local level. He predicted the Trump administration would not reject things like a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools and an Oklahoma education official’s order that public schools include the Bible in lessons. Both face challenges in court. The 2024 Republican platform pledged to use it “federal law in place to keep communists, marxists and socialists hating foreign Christians” as well as “jihadists” from America. During the campaign, Trump said he would form a federal task force to fight back “The Persecution of Christians in America.”
Other groups, nationally and within local churches, are ready to reject a Christian nationalist agenda. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has pledged to resist any Trump administration policies that privilege Christians and use religious freedom claims as a “license to discriminate” said Andrew Seidel, the group’s vice president of strategic communications. He anticipates that the incoming Trump administration has a plan to implement the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which he said has a Christian nationalist agenda, despite Trump moving away from it.
“This time, they are ready for victory” Seidel said. “Last time they were the dog that caught the car. They didn’t know what they were doing. They’ll be ready to go on day one.”
rev. Tim Schaefer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Madison, Wis., said he opposes Christian nationalism in part because it defies the separation of church and state — an important belief in his Baptist tradition.
“Then it is our duty to remind people that we were not established as a Christian nation.” he said. “There was a desire on the part of the founders to be a religiously pluralistic nation.”