Why Ex-Churchgoers Flocked to Trump (Tim Carney in the American Conservative)

[Recursion]

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-ex-churchgoers-flocked-to-trump/

This is fascinating (Tim Carney is a conservative goon but nonetheless can be trusted to cite numbers correctly).

The best way to describe Trump’s support in the Republican primaries—when he was running against the likes of Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich—would be: white evangelicals who do not go to church.

Geoffrey Layman, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, noticed this during the primaries, writing: “Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They don’t really go to church.”

While writing my forthcoming book, Alienated America, my research assistant Nick Saffran and I crunched some numbers provided by Emily Ekins of the Voter Study Group. We broke down Republican primary voters by church attendance. Among the most frequent attenders—those going more than once a week—Trump got about 32 percent of the vote.

Trump also got a minority of those who simply go once a week. Among those who reported going “a few times a year,” Trump got about half. He got an easy majority (55 percent) of those Republicans who “seldom” attend, and a full 62 percent of those who never attend. That is, every step down in church attendance brought a step up in Trump support, and vice versa. The most frequent attenders were half as likely to support Trump as were the least frequent attenders.

[pepperbear]

1. So, the faker the Christian, the more likely they supported trump

Sounds about right

[PJMcK]

2. Hypocritical behavior

Among Trump supporter?! Who would've guessed?

Still, a third of the most frequent church goers were still Trump supporters. Trump's immorality/ amorality should drive them all away. Puzzling.

[Scruffy1]

3. The whole narrative is false.

The "white evangelical" is and always has been a cover for racism. Same for "pro-life". Nice cover, too. It's called a white sheet. Of course the press lets them us it and kowtows to them.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Let's quit pretending religion had anything to do with this

Folks mostly voted for Trump because he swore to kick out the Muslims and the Mexicans, period. End of story.

[Recursion]

5. So why does that appeal more to people who don't attend church than those who do?

Carney makes the same point you are: this isn't a question of religious belief, it's a question of the habit of attending church changing people's views on community and trust.

[Blue_Tires]

6. good point...