More important documentation about who has brought us the horror show of violent acts and violent speaks that has begun following Trump's election:
Gregory A. Smith and Jessica Martínez:
While earlier in the campaign some pundits and others questioned whether the thrice-married Trump would earn the bulk of white evangelical support, fully eight-in-ten self-identified white, born-again/evangelical Christians say they voted for Trump, while just 16% voted for Clinton. Trump’s 65-percentage-point margin of victory among voters in this group – which includes self-described Protestants, as well as Catholics, Mormons and others – matched or exceeded the victory margins of George W. Bush in 2004, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. . . .
White Catholics also supported Trump over Clinton by a wide, 23-point margin (60% to 37%), rivaling Romney’s 19-point victory among those in this group. Trump’s strong support among white Catholics propelled him to a 7-point edge among Catholics overall (52% to 45%) despite the fact that Hispanic Catholics backed Clinton over Trump by a 41-point margin (67% to 26%).
Hollis Phelps:
Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, racially charged rhetoric played right into the hands of white evangelicals as well. Although white evangelicals may often express a desire to love their neighbours as themselves, in reality the commandment is selectively applied. Anyone considered and deemed a threat to evangelical self-understanding, which includes a narrow vision of what America looks like, is on the other side of the fabled "culture war". At the end of the day, that war is based in a particular conception of whiteness, filtered through the lens of religious identity and social conservatism. It’s not surprising, then, that four out of five latched on.
I’m sure most white evangelicals would balk at the charge of racial politics, but the overall motivation in backing Trump has never been much of a secret. It’s safe to say that for many evangelicals, Trump never represented any sort of ideal, and most weren’t under any illusion about the direction of his moral compass. But for white evangelicals, God works even through the imperfect, and God’s work must – and will – be done. . . .
That may all sound hypocritical, but that's just what white evangelicalism is in the US. Although laden with the rhetoric of personal piety, it is primarily a social and political phenomenon, and we would do well to view it in such terms. As this election has made clear, white evangelicals will also stop at nothing in their attempt to establish their version of a "Christian America". That includes supporting someone like Trump, who told them exactly what they wanted to hear. It was a match made in heaven.
Evangelical history is rooted in white supremacy. It was not uprooted and repented of. Seeing the fruits of this now. #evangelicalvote— Kerri Koenig (@kerriko7) November 10, 2016
By way of John Fea, Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile concludes that the evangelical movement has just surrendered the moral high road in its effusive support for Donald Trump. And as a result of this, it has also forfeited the claim to be about religion and not politics — along with the claim to represent a loving God whose embrace of those on the margins of society represents good news.
All this has totally been shattered now by the choices white evangelicals, white Catholics, and Mormons made in this election.
Patricia Miller:
There's significant evidence from earlier Pew Foundation polling that the Catholic bishops' opposition to the contraceptive mandate and the subsequent war on "religious liberty" they ginned up was a major factor in alienating white Catholics from the Democratic Party. The number of white Catholics who said the Obama administration was "unfriendly to religion" more than doubled from 17 percent to 36 percent between 2009 and 2014. And it was white Catholics who were overwhelmingly in favor of Trump—60 percent versus 37 percent for Clinton, a stunning gap of 23 points.
While Clinton did win Hispanic Catholics by a similar wide margin—67 to 26—there simply weren’t enough Hispanic Catholics to make up the difference.
It appears the white Catholic apocalypse cometh for the Democratic Party, and with it perhaps an apocalypse of a much broader magnitude.
And Kaya Oakes:
Catholics have some atoning to do. If the polling numbers are correct (will any of us ever be able to use that phrase again without cringing?), white Catholics voted for Trump at 52 percent to the 45 percent they gave Hillary Clinton.
Effectively, this means white Catholics spit in the faces of the same Latinx Catholics they have long hoped would save the American church.
It's clear how this happened. The American church, particularly the USCCB, has swung so far right that it became a natural ally of Trump. Still, the USCCB has defended the rights of immigrants. Even if its done so as a form of self-preservation as the white Catholic church shrinks and fades, it has at least made gestures at acceptance.
