Trump at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference, Part 2

I'm a bit slow getting back to this, but I promised to say more about the link between conservative Christianity and conservative politics. This came up (again) during President Donald Trump's speech at the 2017 Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference. Trump pointed out that he received 81% of the votes from White Evangelical Christians. He jokingly asked, "I want to know, who are the 19 percent?  Who are they?  (Laughter.)  Where do they come from?" Apparently, he half-expected all of them to support him!

Donald Trump, WH photo

It is a complicated question why conservative Christians often support conservative political issues. It is not a necessary link; Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are just two examples of conservative Protestant Christians who support more liberal policies. Presumably, those former presidents were part of the 19% that Trump joked about. Furthermore, African-American and Hispanic Evangelical Christians did not generally support Mr. Trump during the 2016 election. In part, I suppose, if you are conservative in one way, it makes sense to be conservative in another.

An obvious link, however, is that President Trump supported Christianity by attacking radical Islam. Also, he strongly supported conservative Christians' place in the political arena: "As long as I'm President, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart and from preaching -- and really, this is so important -- from the bottom of my heart -- from preaching from the people that you most want to hear and that you so respect.  So we have taken a very, very strong position, and you picked a winner.  (Applause.)" Mr. Trump also brought up traditional Christian social morality: "We recite today the words of Isaiah Chapter 1, Verse 17:  “Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."

Then there is the simple issue of juxtaposition, a common rhetorical technique. Put two things side-by-side, and they seem to go to together. Although Mr. Trump did talk about religious issues, many of which are central to conservative Christian churches, he mixed these with standard conservative talking points such as suppressing immigration, eliminating government regulations, and appointing conservative Supreme Court justices. None of these issues bore any immediate or obvious connection to Christianity. But they were sprinkled in among points that Christians often care about, making his entire issues package seem like an endorsement of his audience's religious views.

The connection between religion and politics gets complicated, however, and I'm still trying to learn more about it.