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http://religiondispatches.org/fear-nost ... -john-fea/

May be the definitive answer to date

In tandem with the Atlantic Cover Story easy google for How Evangelicals Lost Their Way not many stones left unturned.

And Friday April 27, this: http://religiondispatches.org/maybe-its ... e-reality/

Great article you found here. I think a lot of people will be wondering about this for a long time. There's been a blending of the feeling of power that comes with the elevation to status of Prophet of some of the celebrity and teevee religion personalities that are self-appointed Evangelical leaders with the fantasyworld creation of extremist right wing media that keeps reality from creeping in that has caused Evangelicals to drift away from dependence on and faith in God to getting what they want by using worldly power. It is an apostacy of Biblical proportions.

I think John Fea has some good insights (I like his stuff on the historical propagandist Barton) but any piece that purports to explain why 81% of "evangelicals" voted for Trump that has not one mention of Hilary loses a lot of credibility. I'm not impressed but maybe Fea dealt with that in his book. The article was a very limited interview.

Still, maybe this kind of stuff will persuade the dems to run Hil again. That would be a gift.

Fea has been writing about this for close to two years now. I've been following his blog for several years and I've got his latest/upcoming book on pre-order and have read 3 of his other books so far ("Why Study History?", "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (one of the 'anti-Barton' pieces William mentions) and "The Way of Improvement Leads Home"). I agree with much of what he writes about the folks for whom he coined the phrase "court evangelicals".

However, as William notes, I am still dubious of these columns attempting to explain why supposedly the "81% of (white) evangelicals" voted for Trump. I have had multiple conversations with family and friends on this issue. A few might be considered "supporters" of Trump. Most of the people I know just voted for him because either they considered not voting for him or voting for a third party to be a vote for Hillary or believe the only choice was the standard "lesser of two evils". Trump may be bad, but Hillary was worse. Some took the "we're voting for a politician, not a preacher" route to vote for him.

It seems like EVERY election cycle the media talk about the importance of capturing the (supposedly) important 'independents'. A candidate caters to their base in the primaries, then shifts more to the middle to win the independents and/or moderates in the general primary. I haven't seen nearly as much written about why enough of those folks voted for Trump to give him the victory over Hillary. I'd definitely like to see how many evangelicals would have had to abandon Trump for it to mean anything, but that would have to be computed on state-by-state basis.

Another tidbit - Fea dedicates his book to the "19%"...but if I recall, that 19% doesn't vote Republican anyway, so I'm not sure what merit they deserve for not voting for Trump. I think I shall pose a related question to Fea on his FB page.

To respond to Stephens thread title...

Because he was the best choice of the two candidates.

With Rick Burgess, Baptist Church of the Highlands and their 14 campuses and the new lynching complex in Montgomery about which the NY Times did a spectacular job last week. I had friends present yesterday but didnt make it myself.

Keep an eye on Marshall County Bama Will Ainsworth, a prayed up slick version of a morphed George Wallace with Tim Tebow!!!

http://religiondispatches.org/maybe-its ... e-reality/

What Mormon doctrine contrary to the Gospel was actually spouted at Liberty? I'm not clear on the details, and would like to be. Dallas ditto.