Fred Clark on Shenanigans of Those Trying to Rescue White Evangelical Brand from Trumpism

With impeccable evangelical cred, Fred Clark cries foul on the attempt of some leading white evangelical commentators right now to try to rescue the white evangelical brand from Trumpism, and to maintain that evangelicals are more diverse than the some seven in ten white evangelicals voting for the Donald:

Say, "Most evangelicals support Donald Trump" and they'll say it's unfair to deny the vast diversity of political and theological views that constitute the broader whole of evangelicalism. 

Say, "It’s possible to be both evangelical and gay" and suddenly you’ll find that such diversity is not allowed. They’ll inform you that it's impossible to be both gay and evangelical, and impossible to be both gay "affirming" and evangelical. Just as they'll inform you that it's impossible to be pro-choice and evangelical. And when you trace the lines of all these more exclusive, identity-protecting tribal boundaries, you'll find that almost everyone left inside is a white person voting for Donald Trump.

As Anthea Butler stated recently, "For American Evangelicalism, Trump has severed and destroyed their message, movement, and future." After Trump, it's going to take more than a little rhetorical tinkering to create the illusion that white evangelicalism in the U.S. is anything more than a white supremacist political movement disguised in religious clothing.

The chart is from PRRI's report, 27 October, entitled "The 2016 Religion Vote."