Roy Moore's Strongest Supporters? White Evangelicals — New Poll Results

1. New Washington Post poll out of Alabama has Democrat Doug Jones just leading Republican Roy Moore.

But WaPo did something new: they broke out white evangelicals vs. other white Christians.

It says quite a bit about Moore’s support. https://t.co/SAnbxGfG9n pic.twitter.com/7ZdEZiZnDg

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) December 2, 2017

News just breaking: a Washington Post-Schar School poll shows that white evangelicals continue to stand by their man Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race after all a number of women have come forth to tell their stories about how he sexually assaulted them when they were minors. Roughly the same percentage of white evangelicals in Alabama as the percentage of white evangelicals nationally who placed the moral monstrosity in the White House — 78% — say they intend to vote for Moore. Commentary on this:

E.A. Crunden, "White evangelicals stand by Roy Moore: poll shows candidates neck-and-neck":

Alabama's Senate race is now neck-and-neck with one crucial demographic holding on to support for Republican candidate and accused serial sexual predator Roy Moore: white evangelical Christians. 

With the election less than two weeks away, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll shows Democrat Doug Jones leading his opponent 50 to 47 among voters. That poll, published Saturday, notes that a margin of more than nine points is needed to be significant. If the poll is correct, the race is a toss-up — remarkable in overwhelmingly conservative Alabama. 

But the poll offers another revealing statistic: while Moore trails Jones by 3 percent among voters overall, he continues to lead him among white voters by 30 percent. That margin becomes even starker among white evangelical protestants, who favor Moore by 78 percent — a 59-percent margin.

At AL.com, Chris Stroop breaks down for non-evangelical Americans the precise reasons why white evangelicals are standing by Moore and what their defense of him says about themselves and their version of Christianity:

But when a man who once defiantly stated, "Without God, there can be no ethics" is credibly accused of groping, pursuing underage girls, and child molestation, and these accusations only increase his support among his white Evangelical base, the highly patriarchal and authoritarian nature of white Evangelical subculture becomes impossible to ignore. 

As those of us who have lived and abandoned conservative Evangelicalism often know all too well, patriarchal authoritarianism goes hand in hand with the devaluation and abuse of women and children, and the Roy Moore scandal is at the center of what many are calling Evangelicalism's overdue reckoning.

And:

As America struggles to come to terms with the prevalence of sexual assault by powerful men in politics, entertainment, and #ChurchToo, ex-Evangelicals are banding together to reveal the rot at the center of conservative Evangelicalism. It is not enough for seemingly more moderate white Evangelical leaders such as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Russell Moore (no relation to Roy) to denounce Roy Moore's widely attested deplorable behavior. 

Whatever the outcome of Alabama's special election, conservative Christians like Russell Moore need to realize that it is utopian to believe they can retain "a theology of Christian patriarchy"--a term he has himself defended--without Roy Moores. Until they do, the ex-Evangelical movement will be here to remind them, and the wider American public, that the only proper response to such toxicity in churches is to #EmptyThePews.