A lot of white evangelical voters aren't evangelicals

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

According to the exit polls, 26 percent of the electorate in last week’s midterms consisted of white evangelicals. Yet white evangelicals make up just 15.3 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to PRRI’s widely used survey data. What gives?....

All in all, there’s no reason to think that this situation has changed since 2008. By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, one-third of the “white evangelicals” who voted last week were not evangelicals in the denominational sense. And that covers most of the gap between PRRI’s number of white evangelicals and the exit polls’.

To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2018/11/13/a-lot-of-white-evangelical-voters-arent-evangelicals/

We label ourselves as a means of establishing an identity, and others label us as a way of grouping people, but what does a label really tell us about an individual?

[Cary]

1. Agreed that there are good people lumped in with bad

See our prior discussion.

If I were lumped in with bad people I would see it as my responsibility to distance myself from those bad people. For example if I were a Republican I would quit that party rather than associate with and enable white supremacists. I would not push back against anyone who criticized me for associating with white supremacists.

I actually have Republicans pushing back against me because I criticize them for associating with white supremacists.

[guillaumeb]

5. There is a reason that white supremacists re comfortable in the GOP.

And that should be a concern for the non-racist GOP voters.

[Cary]

11. You"ve got that right but it was meant as an example

I used it to illustrate my point that the good Evangelicals have a duty to distance themselves from the fundamentalists who want to impose their religion on a majority who reject their theology.

[MineralMan]

2. Since not all people who are eligible to vote do vote,

Those exit polls may be correct. It is looking only at those who voted. The 15.3 percentage number is based on the entire US population, not just voters.

It's very possible that evangelicals vote in a higher percentage than does the overall population.

Generally, in exit polling, people provide their own description of themselves. So, it may well be that 26% of those who voted actually were evangelicals.

Compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. The article you quoted from is probably misinterpreting the statistics.

[d_r]

10. Yes, but

the point of this article is to refute the claim that "white evangelicals" turned out to vote in over represented numbers. The 15.3% number uses one methodology and definition, the 26% uses another. Per the article, if you use the definition used in exit polls at a national level, it is about 26% (as 39% of white mainline Protestants and 18% of white Catholics describe themselves as "born again or evangelical). So, the article that is quoted from is actually stating how to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, rather than misinterpreting these data.

[CrispyQ]

3. You can almost tell what kind of Christian someone is by the political party they identify with.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Are you a "build a wall" Christian or a "build a longer table" Christian?

You being the generic you, not the personal you.

[guillaumeb]

4. Understood. Well said. eom

[YessirAtsaFact]

6. There's another explanation

A group can be 15% of the registered voters and 26% of the electorate because a larger percentage of this group votes than the percentage of all registered voters who vote.

The looniest evangelicals I know always vote. Tornado warnings couldn’t keep them from voting.

[guillaumeb]

7. I agree. One example:

The tendency of older voters to vote at higher numbers gives them a disproportionate voice.

[OneBro]

8. A simple, more likely explanation . . .

. . . is that white evangelicals are more likely to vote as compared to others, resulting in a significantly higher percentage of white evangelicals who voted as compared to their percentage of the population.

Group A population =10 people
Group B population = 40 people
Total population = 50 people
Total number of voters = 16

If 8 people from group A vote and 8 people from group B vote, the result is similar to the situation you describe, i.e. smaller percentage of population with higher percentage of “voting power.”

In short, white evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Trump, and the idea the some people are or were only pretending to be white evangelicals for giggles is, well, laughable.

[guillaumeb]

9. The post also talks about how people label themselves.

And how they are labelled. But we are both aware that participation is higher among some groups. There is a large difference between
eligible voters, registered voters, and active votes. The latter are the only ones that count.