The religious right latched onto Donald Trump in part because he made clucking noises about social issues that they liked. In return, the nation’s so-called moral guardians stood by him after the “Access Hollywood” tapes came up. Without that, Trump would have been finished.
Well, Trump has repaid that massive political debt several times over. According to veteran culture warrior Richard Land, Trump has given religious right figures more influence than anyone can remember having in any White House. To hear the evangelical world’s favorite pollster talk, the religious right has made the most of that influence. Supposedly, they’re responsible for a major change of heart in the Donald.
For almost three decades, George Barna has been the biggest name in Christian polling. His standing in the evangelical world is roughly comparable to those of Public Policy Polling and Ann Selzer. He has also branched out into punditry, and has written a number of books about the church and culture. His latest book, “The Day Christians Changed America,” peddles what has become the standard religious right line–that Trump’s upset victory was nothing short of a divine miracle.
On Monday, Barna dropped by WINA in Charlottesville, Virginia to promote his new book. While talking with lunchtime host Rob Schilling, Barna claimed that Trump is undergoing a gradual, but noticeable, change of heart and mind under the influence of the many fundies around him. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Schilling recalled one of Trump’s loudest fundie cheerleaders, Robert Jeffress, had recently told him that Trump frequently asks him for prayer in private. That led him to ask Barna about Trump’s own faith.
Barna claimed that Trump’s numerous sit-downs with Christian leaders have opened Trump’s eyes about how evangelicals look at issues, “why we come to the conclusions that we do,” and how they look at things through the prism that “we are on Earth to serve God and to do his will.”
According to this narrative, Trump has been a willing listener. Barna has received reports that “several different groups of religious leaders” meet with Trump and call him on a regular basis–and it’s having an effect.
“I mean, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that’s not strictly political. There is a major change, I believe, taking place in the mind, the heart and hopefully the soul of this man who’s now our president.”
As early as the summer of 2016, word got out that Trump had been saved and was a baby Christian. That notion sounds downright laughable to anyone who follows Trump’s Twitter activity. Indeed, this interview came more than a week after Trump retweeted a violent GIF showing him knocking Hillary Clinton down with a tee shot. Does anyone seriously believe that anyone who really had Jesus living inside of him would have hit the “retweet” button on that tweet?
On the face of it, that retweet knocks down a common excuse that’s been peddled for why the religious right backed Trump despite his past outrages–they all happened before he was saved. But that retweet proved beyond any doubt that the man who openly bragged that he can “grab ’em by the p***y” because he’s a celebrity and who openly admitted groping his wife in public is the real Trump.
It’s inconceivable that Barna isn’t aware of Trump’s more outrageous and hateful rants on Twitter and in public. Perhaps he and the rest of the religious right either don’t know, don’t understand, don’t want to know, or don’t want to understand that Trump has taken them for a ride. Or perhaps they don’t want to explain why they effectively threw victims of domestic violence and sexual assault under the bus in order to support Trump. Remember, many religious right leaders said that Trump’s degrading comments didn’t matter as much as ensuring that this country “had a future“–a future that included ending abortion and rolling back marriage equality.
However, their base may be starting to open their eyes. Earlier this month, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 62 percent of white evangelicals approved of Trump’s performance–almost double the current FiveThirtyEight average of 38.6 percent. That looks impressive–until you consider that Trump took over 81 percent of the white evangelical vote, and for most of this year, over 70 percent of white evangelicals approved of Trump’s performance.
As anemic as Trump’s approval ratings have been, they would be even worse if not for the support of an element that has been brainwashed into thinking that opposing Trump could endanger their walk with God. The obvious take–while Barna and the nation’s other so-called moral guardians would like you to believe that Trump is a changed man, a growing element of their followers are starting to see otherwise.
(featured image: screenshot courtesy CNN)
