American Evangelicals - Majority Political Shift
by Rik Charbonneaux "The heart of the wise inclines to the right..." Ecclesiastes 10:2 NIV Time is relevant to many things and brings many changes. What was a conservative majority less than ten years ago has become the conservative minority in what is still the only religious group in America that still keeps growing in number: American Evangelicals. In taking an honest look at Evangelicals today, we see an ever-widening gap in political positions within the camp. Instead of being like it was back in the 1990s with one-third being centrist conservative and one-third being centrist progressive, with the rest being politically unaffiliated, the mix today is anything but equally proportional. A full 60 percent of Evangelicals now identify as either progressive or centrist minded and many now favor socialism as being the direction that we need to move toward to assure that the needs of all be taken care of and to raise the income and quality of life for those of the bottom 18% of Americans. They are pro-LGBT and pro women's health rights, as well as willing to accept popular opinion based on being (1) "consistent with Scripture" or (2) being based on "secular majority opinion". On the other end of the political spectrum, about one-third of Evangelicals still identify as being conservative or centrist Republican and oppose any move toward socialism in the future, such as any single payer all-inclusive national health and welfare plan. They still decide decisions based on "consistent with the Scripturees" and try to maintain a Christian world view for their perspective of things. Where the progressive camp of U.S. Evangelicals is almost a direct image of the American public in terms of Pro-Same Sex Marriage (65% of all U.S religious favor same-sex marriage), the conservative camp of U.S. Evangelicals is anything but. This shift to a politically progressive majority with in the ranks of U.S. Evangelicals is amazing in itself, but even more astounding is the 40% of all Americans who now favor socialism. Further, the majority of Millennials favor socialism (polled during 2015) and the number of "Gen X" members favoring socialism is even higher. Times in America are changing and a political crossroads is coming into view that will have the American population looking more and more like the political base necessary to successfully support a "free or reduced cost medical health care for all' European health care and welfare models. Conservative Christians used to be a desirable voting bloc to court to your side of things, but no longer. As more Christians shift their political affiliation toward those Democratic Socialists that are emerging now as the younger face of the Democratic Party, the moral influence of conservative evangelicals will still be a factor in American politics, but only marginally so. By 2025, Gen Z (the least religious generation in U.S. history) will control the elections and have the say on just how different our health and welfare system will become.
*Sojourners - "Evangelicals: By The Numbers" 1. "Support for the conservative Christian movement is highest among conservative Republicans and white evangelical Protestants. More than four-in-ten conservative Republicans (41%) and 29% of white evangelicals say they agree with the conservative Christian movement. Just 4% and 6%, respectively, say they disagree with the movement." 2. "By contrast, 45% of liberal Democrats disagree with the conservative Christian movement while just 2% agree. The religiously unaffiliated disagree with the Christian conservative movement by 30% to 3%." **Newsweek, "End of White Christian America" 1. "Many white evangelical churches have staked out positions—not just on same-sex marriage and abortion but on climate change, evolution, and other issues—that are at odds with the attitudes of younger Americans, the PRRI polls find. "These hard line stances have set up a culture clash that leaves many young people feeling out of touch with the institution and ultimately walking out the door as a result," Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |
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