Crossroads Podcast: What Religion Questions Do Biden And Trump Want To Avoid?

The timing was awkward, to say the least, for the recording of this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.

Lutheran Public Radio listeners who heard this chat live heard us discussing an alleged “debate” between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump that had not yet taken place. Ditto for anyone who immediately downloaded the Issues, Etc., audio file.

However, folks reading this post about the “Crossroads” version of that discussion may or may not have already watched that strange event between two candidates who have not formally been nominated by their parties. As for me, I don’t watch these things — since I think reading transcripts is better for my fragile stomach.

However, we did talk about the debate — in two different ways.

First, host Todd Wilken asked me a painful question: If I served as moderator for this “debate,” what religion-based questions would I ask?

I like questions about specific political events, laws or court decisions, in an attempt to avoid vague, foggy answers that tell listeners zip. So, here are a few Mattingly questions:

JOE BIDEN: In 1993, you voted with the 97-3 Senate majority to approve the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Would you vote for an identical bill today? 

DONALD TRUMP: Would you ask Senate Republicans to seek a strengthened version of RFRA, responding to trends in U.S. Courts?

BOTH: Do you believe a gay liberal Christian should be required to produce t-shirts, films, websites, etc., promoting a church event attacking gay marriage? How about a cake?

BOTH: Do you believe traditional Jews, Christians and Muslims have a right to review classroom sex-ed materials if they are worried about clashes with the doctrines of their faith? Should their children be allowed to sit out offensive classes?

BOTH: Do you support the rights, under Federalism, of states to pass school-choice legislation?

You get the general idea. And these questions bring us to a related topic, linked to a Religion News Service report with this headline: “Why the swing state faith voters who really matter in 2024 aren’t evangelicals.”

I laughed out loud when I read that, since religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling — for a decade or so — wrote GetReligion pieces noting that the crucial swing-state voters are almost always Catholics (not evangelicals). Here’s a perfect example: “Repeat after me: White Catholics voting in 2004. White Catholics voting in 2024 ...”

That said, the RNS post opened by arguing that a key factor in some swing states would be liberal Protestants getting out the vote for Democrats.

OK, but the mainline churches are shrinking like crazy. Also, it’s amazing the degree to which mainliners in pews remain very open to voting for Republicans. Check out this chart in a Ryan Burge post: “Given the Rise of the Nones, Why Aren’t Democrats Winning Most Elections?”

Wait, only 35 percent of United Methodists, at that time, were Democrats? There were more GOP voters in the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church of America than there were Democrats? Here is some summary material from Burge:

For my purposes, let’s say a denomination is majority Republican if the GOP share is larger than the Democrat’s share by at least five percentage points. That’s the case in fourteen of these denominations, including the largest denominations in the United States: Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Assemblies of God, and all those non-denominationals.

In how many are the Democrats clearly in the majority? Two. The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ.

Burge’s bottom line: “There are just not very many white Christian Democrats anymore.”

Thus, in conclusion: What kind of religion questions will Biden welcome, when chasing swing-state Catholics, and what questions will he avoid? I would ask the same question to Trump.

Enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it along to others.