Donald Trump's Losing White Evangelicals to Joe Biden

[SouthernIslander]

I haven't seen indication of white evangelical voters leaving Trump either but what I have seen is a shift in who identifies as a white evangelical, if that makes sense

Do they really call themselves white evangelicals? I don’t have a problem with it but I have never heard of that before Trump.

No, they just call themselves Trump supporters

In my neck of the woods, I remember when newcomers were asked "where they churched". It evolved into "are you Republican or Democrat". Now it's "Do you support Trump". Since 2016, every demonstration (and goodness we have lots) ranging from flaggers on the courthouse lawn to pro-lifers in the town park to anti-LGBTQ demos at our local school have been framed around "true Christian" and "Trump supporter".

In real life, I've seen a lot of people lay low with their religious affiliation and keep it personal. Many of our community members who are associated with an evangelical church are doing this. At the same time, I've seen a lot of people who previously held no religious affiliation, proudly proclaim their Christian evangelicalism as a reason behind their protest. Many of these people are not associated with a church.

I'm not saying that they aren't Christian or Christian Evangelicals. I don't think anyone has the authority to proclaim what is in another persons' heart. I'm just saying that many in my community who are proclaiming their evangelicalism didn't do so before Trump and many who did are no longer proclaiming it. I'm not sure if that makes sense, lol.

No makes perfect sense. That’s why I am asking y’all questions because I never heard of half of this stuff until Trump came along and I don’t have a lot of experience with predominantly white churches.

[WellPreserved]

Do they really call themselves white evangelicals? I don’t have a problem with it but I have never heard of that before Trump.

No, they just call themselves Trump supporters

In my neck of the woods, I remember when newcomers were asked "where they churched". It evolved into "are you Republican or Democrat". Now it's "Do you support Trump". Since 2016, every demonstration (and goodness we have lots) ranging from flaggers on the courthouse lawn to pro-lifers in the town park to anti-LGBTQ demos at our local school have been framed around "true Christian" and "Trump supporter".

In real life, I've seen a lot of people lay low with their religious affiliation and keep it personal. Many of our community members who are associated with an evangelical church are doing this. At the same time, I've seen a lot of people who previously held no religious affiliation, proudly proclaim their Christian evangelicalism as a reason behind their protest. Many of these people are not associated with a church.

I'm not saying that they aren't Christian or Christian Evangelicals. I don't think anyone has the authority to proclaim what is in another persons' heart. I'm just saying that many in my community who are proclaiming their evangelicalism didn't do so before Trump and many who did are no longer proclaiming it. I'm not sure if that makes sense, lol.

No makes perfect sense. That’s why I am asking y’all questions because I never heard of half of this stuff until Trump came along and I don’t have a lot of experience with predominantly white churches.

I have almost 60 years of "churchin'"!

I remember growing up every year was the "homecoming" service where most of the churches in my small town would gather together and have an all day service. Honestly, i hated the service (it was HOURS long) but gosh I loved the food! Currently, our minister is not allowed to sit at the table during the monthly Ecumenical meeting of community church leaders all because she's a woman and because the Episcopal church is seen as "the gay church" <sigh>.

Our Black evangelical church has been nothing but welcoming to me and my family (we're neighbors). Sure, my daughter got a side-eye from some of the women of the church when she introduced her "partner", lol. I'm not sure I would feel welcome in our local white evangelical churches despite having friends who I love who are white evangelicals.

I know I'm rambling but bottom line for me is that I've never seen such a division politically AND religiously in the US nor have I ever seen such a connection between religion and politics and it's really frightening to me. It used to be that a difference of beliefs would get you a side-eye from the church women. Now it's getting you threats and not just those of eternal damnation.

[SouthernIslander]

They're typically called the Christian Right.

I’ve never heard of that either.

They're the ones with the "God, guns, country" on their pick-em-up truck.

And those dangling truck nuts?

[Della]

I’ve never heard of that either.

They're the ones with the "God, guns, country" on their pick-em-up truck.

And those dangling truck nuts?

Those are out. Now it's the "Lean"

[SouthernIslander]

They're the ones with the "God, guns, country" on their pick-em-up truck.

And those dangling truck nuts?

Those are out. Now it's the "Lean"

What’s that? I haven’t heard of it before.

[Slimshandy]

What good would it do to silo the study of every cultural group so that the only people who can be considered experts must be members of said groups. That doesn't seem beneficial for placing cultures in context with each other, armchair or otherwise. I would hope anthropologists would care about that.

If you don't like what they said, you could have just said that.

I didn’t ask the question based on disliking what they said…


Anthropologists are taught cultural humility. You can be a lifelong learner and researcher on a different culture and write books about your experiences/findings, but you should never be considered so much of an expert on the subject that your voice is louder than the members of that culture.

I'm not familiar with the concept of cultural humility being a stand alone but rather in conjunction with cultural competence. I agree that in order to understand and appropriately study a culture, one needs cultural humility (“Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are.") One also needs cultural competency (Cultural competence is the ability of an individual to understand and respect values, attitudes, beliefs, and mores that differ across cultures, and to consider and respond appropriately to these differences in planning, implementing, and evaluating health education and promotion programs and interventions.") I would also add that someone needs an understanding of historical reference and the culture's place in time as well as comparison with other cultures of that moment but that's because I studied history, lol.

People who study cultures whether historians, anthropologists, sociologists, most often have access to data and perspectives that an individual or even group within that culture does not. To accurately study a culture, one has to remove biases and again, those within that culture have inherent bias. So in answer to your question, I think it's inaccurate to say that the voice of members of a culture should always take precedence to the voice of an expert but of course, any study of a group must include perspectives of those within the group.

To swing it back to another topic in this forum, "White Rural Rage". It really is an interesting read and quite informative not despite but because it is full of interviews from a wide variety of white rural residents as well as data collected. The two authors aren't anthropologists, they're historians. That is what any good historian would do.

Cultural humility is under the umbrella of cultural competence, but there are plenty of books written about it as a standalone.


But as to the highlighted part- an anthropologist should never be studying a culture and then assume they’re going to teach the members of that culture about their own culture.

And sure- it’s TOTALLY been an issue, it happened a lot. But when you know better, you do better. And we know better now…



( Note- this is not discussing cults in which crimes are taking place. That’s a different subject to anthropologists studying common culture)

[WellPreserved]

I didn’t ask the question based on disliking what they said…


Anthropologists are taught cultural humility. You can be a lifelong learner and researcher on a different culture and write books about your experiences/findings, but you should never be considered so much of an expert on the subject that your voice is louder than the members of that culture.

I'm not familiar with the concept of cultural humility being a stand alone but rather in conjunction with cultural competence. I agree that in order to understand and appropriately study a culture, one needs cultural humility (“Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are.") One also needs cultural competency (Cultural competence is the ability of an individual to understand and respect values, attitudes, beliefs, and mores that differ across cultures, and to consider and respond appropriately to these differences in planning, implementing, and evaluating health education and promotion programs and interventions.") I would also add that someone needs an understanding of historical reference and the culture's place in time as well as comparison with other cultures of that moment but that's because I studied history, lol.

People who study cultures whether historians, anthropologists, sociologists, most often have access to data and perspectives that an individual or even group within that culture does not. To accurately study a culture, one has to remove biases and again, those within that culture have inherent bias. So in answer to your question, I think it's inaccurate to say that the voice of members of a culture should always take precedence to the voice of an expert but of course, any study of a group must include perspectives of those within the group.

To swing it back to another topic in this forum, "White Rural Rage". It really is an interesting read and quite informative not despite but because it is full of interviews from a wide variety of white rural residents as well as data collected. The two authors aren't anthropologists, they're historians. That is what any good historian would do.

Cultural humility is under the umbrella of cultural competence, but there are plenty of books written about it as a standalone.


But as to the highlighted part- an anthropologist should never be studying a culture and then assume they’re going to teach the members of that culture about their own culture.

And sure- it’s TOTALLY been an issue, it happened a lot. But when you know better, you do better. And we know better now…



( Note- this is not discussing cults in which crimes are taking place. That’s a different subject to anthropologists studying common culture)

Okay. So now that we've determined that the article has been written by members of the group, have you read it and what are your thoughts - https://www.oah.org/tah/november-5/evan ... -politics/

[WellPreserved]

I’ve never heard of that either.

They're the ones with the "God, guns, country" on their pick-em-up truck.

And those dangling truck nuts?

In my neck of the woods, add a "Honk for Jesus" bumper sticker next to "Let's Go Brandon". Somewhere there will be a flag and a Trump banner.

I haven't seen truck nuts for awhile! I almost miss them

[Della]

Do they really call themselves white evangelicals? I don’t have a problem with it but I have never heard of that before Trump.

They're typically called the Christian Right.

I’ve never heard of that either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right

If you have time, check it out.

[Della]

And those dangling truck nuts?

Those are out. Now it's the "Lean"

What’s that? I haven’t heard of it before.

That lift on trucks that makes the front end higher than the rear. It's been outlawed in some states.