Wednesday, August 28, 2024

RNS Weekly Digest: Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris

Weekly Digest

Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris

In his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama captured 26% and 21% of white evangelical Christian voters, respectively — and won. Hillary Clinton got only 16% of the white evangelical vote in 2016 and lost. In the past two elections, Donald Trump took more than 80% of the white evangelical vote. Most analysts agree that if Kamala Harris can break this hold on religious conservatives and approach Obama’s numbers, she will sail into the White House.

To recapture the religious conservative vote for the Democrats, evangelical groups that are aligned with the Democratic mission are alternating between the carrot and the stick. The “carrot,” — appealing to voters’ religious identities in a positive way — aims to show that Democratic policies in general and Harris’ in particular manifest a rich and broad understanding of religious duty grounded in the gospel.

The “stick” is in large measure about wielding the prospect of a second term for Donald Trump. In this case, some of the same groups make the case that Trump is simply not a worthy representative of Christianity. But it’s also the broader argument that the Republican Party promotes an idea of religion that is too narrowly focused, divisive, intensely politicized.

 Religion & Politics

In Opinion

And finally, Carlos Whittaker spent seven years screen-free. Here's how his idea of God changed.

It all started when Carlos Whittaker received that perky Sunday morning iPhone notification summarizing his time spent on his handheld screen in the past week.

Seven hours and twenty-three minutes on average per day. 

Whittaker, an author and former worship pastor, did some quick math and realized that number translated to nearly 100 full days a year. If he lived to be 85, he’d have spent a decade looking at his phone. While most of his work centers around his social media community, his “Instafamilia,” he knew something needed to change. 

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