Faith and politics: 5 revealing questions to ask on Election Night
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Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Got feedback or ideas for this column? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.
(ANALYSIS) In Tuesday’s big vote, politics matter.
So, too, does religion.
On Election Night, here are five revealing questions that Godbeat pros will be asking:
1. Was President Donald Trump able to maintain his overwhelming level of support — roughly 80% in 2016 — among White evangelicals?
“If that number is significantly lower, I would think it has to do with younger evangelicals and maybe women evangelicals getting fed up,” said Kimberly Winston, an award-winning religion reporter based in California.
The pre-election outlook? Trump is “losing ground with some — but not all — White Christians,” reports FiveThirtyEight’s Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux.
On the flip side, Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt points to evangelical voters who express “more faith in Trump” than they did four years ago.
2. What difference did Catholic voters make, particularly in all-important swing states?
NPR religion correspondent Tom Gjelten notes that in 2016 “it was not the evangelicals who carried Trump to victory but Catholics, a group he had rarely mentioned in his speeches.”
Gjelten explains:
Despite losing the popular vote, Trump reached the presidency in large part because he won traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all states in which Catholics outnumber evangelicals by significant margins.
Religion Unplugged’s Clemente Lisi, The Atlantic’s Emma Green and the Columbus Dispatch’s Danae King offer more insight on this key voting bloc.
3. How did various subgroups — Mormons, Muslims and even the Amish among them — influence the outcome?
Trump’s campaign has made a “concerted effort” to expand support among Arizona and Nevada members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Salt Lake Tribune’s Lee Davidson reports.
Muslim voters could “prove consequential in key swing states,” including Arizona and Georgia, according to the Huffington Post’s Rowaida Abdelaziz.
And in Pennsylvania, the president and his supporters are “courting the Amish,” even though they don’t tend to vote, the York Daily Record’s Mike Argento notes.
4. Did faith-based voters base their choice on a single issue (think abortion) or multiple concerns (a demographic targeted by former Vice President Joe Biden)?
In an email, Associated Press religion writer Elana Schor reflects on this question:
It's a frame we often hear applied to the Catholic electorate, in terms of emphasis on abortion as an overarching motivator versus other issues prioritized as part of a bigger life ethic, such as support for migrants/refugees and action on climate change. But I see this as a key element of Biden's outreach to Christian voters overall, particularly those who lean more to the right. Biden's faith director has called systemic racism the preeminent religious issue of the campaign, but certainly the Democratic nominee has presented a bigger palette of multi-issue engagement to religious voters — in contrast to the Trump campaign's more traditionally conservative pitch that's grounded in abortion restrictions, judicial nominees and rhetorical emphasis on religious freedom.
If Biden can make inroads with Christian voters broadly speaking, compared with Clinton's 2016 performance, we can partly credit that multi-issue pitch to people of faith as a reason he built a diverse, winning coalition. If Biden largely ends up at (Hillary) Clinton's level with those religious voters he's courting, it will suggest that his leftward shift on abortion was a serious early setback.
5. What surprising trends or issues emerged that nobody anticipated?
Election 2020’s takeaway, from a religion standpoint, might not be apparent immediately.
“In 2016, I waited a week to figure out my big election story, and it paid off because it took us several days to really figure out what had happened,” Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey said. “I suspect this year will be similar.”
After the 2016 election, Bailey reported from Mount Airy, N.C. — aka “Mayberry” — on “How nostalgia for white Christian America drove so many Americans to vote for Trump.” She also explored how Trump’s victory “put the spotlight on white, rural voters, many of them evangelicals.”
Four years later, Peter Smith, religion writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said he’ll pay close attention to exit polls in his home state, especially “since the candidates seem to be running for president of Pennsylvania.”
“I’m particularly interested in the Catholic vote, but others as well,” Smith said. “If it's as close as in 2016, every single demographic will count.
“A subsequent question will be: If Biden wins, to what extent will religious leaders who support Trump urge the president to accept or challenge the results?” the Post-Gazette writer added. “I suppose the reverse could be asked, but Biden hasn't made noises about refusing to accept a losing result.”
The candidates’ victory and/or concession speeches also could be newsworthy in terms of religion.
“I am fascinated by civic religion,” Winston said, “so I’ll be looking for hat tips to the old standards: ‘city on a hill,’ ‘God bless America,’ references to American exceptionalism, etc. And I’ll be curious to see, when a winner is declared, if the winners acknowledge a higher power.
“And heaven forbid, but if there is unrest/violence after the results, I’ll be watching to see what faith leaders do.”
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Seeking power in Jesus’ name: Trump sparks a rise of Patriot Churches: I mentioned Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s exceptional 2016 election coverage.
Fast-forward to 2020: Her faith-and-politics stories remain must reading, including this one on Christian nationalism datelined Knoxville, Tenn.
2. Amy Coney Barrett is my niece. It's absurd to call her an extremist: Bruce Nolan is a familiar name to many who follow religion news. No, I’m not talking about the fictional TV news reporter played by Jim Carrey in the 2003 comedy "Bruce Almighty."
I'm referring to a real-life journalist who for years covered religion for The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans.
It turns out that Nolan is the uncle of new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and he wrote a thought-provoking column on his family’s experience with her confirmation.
3. How COVID-19 is fueling a new Jesus movement: Religion Unplugged’s Meagan Clark and Haeven Gibbons go inside a pandemic-era revival led by controversial evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht.
And veteran religion writer Julia Duin delves into the Christian rocker’s COVID-19 protest movement for Politico magazine.
More Top Reads
• Two years later, Tree of Life shooting survivors are making the victims' memories a blessing (by Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Faith groups are quick to lend a hand when disaster strikes. But with organized religion fading, who will pick up the slack? (by Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)
• Trump becomes the first president since Eisenhower to change religious affiliations while in office (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)
• A Black pastor’s Zoom campaign to save Pennsylvania for Biden (by Erick Trickey, Politico)
• Taco trucks and voter guides boost political profiles of faith communities at the margins (by Alejandra Molina, RNS)
• Handcuffed, tied down, beaten: Pastor Rickie Rush faces new allegations of abusing children (by Sue Ambrose and Miles Moffeit, Dallas Morning News)
• Pope Francis names Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory first African American cardinal (by Chico Harlan, Michelle Boorstein and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post)
• A long, lonely lockdown for Christian care centers (by Erik Tryggestad, Christian Chronicle)
• Why this Ohio church's name invokes the end of the world (by Danae King, Columbus Dispatch)
• Chicago churches join growing movement of congregations paying off medical debt (by Emily McFarlan Miller, RNS)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
My colleagues at Religion Unplugged keep winning accolades for their stellar journalism.
This week, a video produced by Micah Danney as part of a “God and Guns” multimedia package led by Paul Glader won an EPPY Award from Editor and Publisher.
Religion Unplugged also earned six finalist recognitions in five EPPY Award categories.
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.
• Majority Of U.S. megachurches now multiracial, new data says (by Jillian Cheney)
• Lessons from the civil rights movement for this election day and beyond (by Eugene F. Rivers III and David L. Tubbs)
• Election 2020: For many Americans, religion will play a major role at the ballot box (by Clemente Lisi)
• Pope Francis' civil union media storm unleashes doctrinal infighting (by Clemente Lisi)
• Don’t vote Trump for religious liberty (by Tish Harrison Warren)
• Macron Is right to defend free speech in France, denounce Islamists (by Paul Marshall)
• In India, a Catholic priest is healing addicts with yoga (by Priyadarshini Sen)
• Why some religious people still refuse to celebrate Halloween (by Kate Nicholl)
• 10 highlights from Kanye West's long-awaited Joe Rogan interview (by Mattie Townson)
• Violence against India's marginalized Dalits rising, new data shows (by Hanan Zaffar and Danish Pandit)
The Final Plug
The funnest religion story in a while: The Oklahoman’s Carla Hinton profiles an Oklahoma City church lady who gained surprising notoriety in the new “Borat 2” movie.
Jeanise Jones, the subject of all the attention, “believed she was taking part in a documentary instead of a feature-length R-rated movie.” But don’t ask Jones what she thought about the satirical film. She told Hinton that she doesn’t have Amazon Prime, so she hasn’t seen it.
A related twist: Amid the publicity, Jones’ home congregation, the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, is counting a six-figure blessing.
“Borat” actor Sacha Baron Cohen gave the church $100,000.
Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.