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The Changing Values of American Evangelicals in Politics

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The Changing Values of American Evangelicals in Politics University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM UVM Honors College Senior Theses Undergraduate Theses 2019 The Changing Values of American Evangelicals in Politics Megan T. Nelson University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses Recommended Citation Nelson, Megan T., "The Changing Values of American Evangelicals in Politics" (2019). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 312. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/312 This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in UVM Honors College Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Vermont Department of Sociology The Changing Values of American Evangelicals in Politics Megan Nelson Honors College Thesis April 2019 Table of Contents Abstract.........................................................................................................................................................4 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................6 Previous Work................................................................................................................................10 Evangelicals Historical Development in America...................................................................................15 Foundation of Evangelicalism in American Protestantism.............................................................15 Theological conflict and the separation of Evangelical Protestantism...........................................15 The New Christian Right...........................................................................................................................16 Early Growth...................................................................................................................................16 Changes Under Falwell...................................................................................................................17 The New Christian Right and Reagan.....................................................................................................20 A Continuing Relationship.............................................................................................................21 Trump Compared to Other Republican Candidates..............................................................................24 McCain............................................................................................................................................25 Romney...........................................................................................................................................26 Trump vs. Cruz...............................................................................................................................27 Trump..............................................................................................................................................29 How is Trump Different? ...............................................................................................................31 Moral Concerns of the New Christian Right...........................................................................................33 Abortion..........................................................................................................................................34 Reproductive Rights........................................................................................................................36 LGBTQ Rights................................................................................................................................38 Women’s Rights..............................................................................................................................41 Evangelicals vs. Secularism.......................................................................................................................42 Prayer in Schools............................................................................................................................42 Freedom from anti-discrimination..................................................................................................44 What Evangelicals Want Now..................................................................................................................45 White Evangelicals as Reactionaries..............................................................................................46 Racial Anxiety................................................................................................................................47 White Evangelicals and White Nationalism...................................................................................48 Opinions on Race............................................................................................................................49 Fear of Islam...................................................................................................................................51 Immigration.....................................................................................................................................53 Hillary Clinton................................................................................................................................55 Morality...........................................................................................................................................56 A threatened Christian Future.........................................................................................................57 Summary of Existing Analysis..................................................................................................................59 Opinions during the 2016 election..................................................................................................59 Evangelical Context for the 2016 Election.....................................................................................63 White evangelical political alignment.............................................................................................67 Support for anti-Muslim policies....................................................................................................69 Evangelical support for Trump in the post-election period............................................................72 Methodology...............................................................................................................................................74 Data sources and analysis...............................................................................................................75 2 Tables, Graphs, and Analysis....................................................................................................................76 Continuing views on immigration..................................................................................................76 Continuing views on abortion.........................................................................................................81 Continuing views on Gay Rights....................................................................................................82 Continuing concerns over status.....................................................................................................84 Trends as a religious group.............................................................................................................91 Current priorities.............................................................................................................................96 After the election............................................................................................................................99 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................................107 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................................111 Appendix A...............................................................................................................................................122 3 Abstract In 2016 81% of self-identified white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in the Presidential election and continued to support him after (Smith & Martinez, 2016; Peters & Dias, 2018). White evangelicals were willing to back a Republican candidate that appeared to deviate from their normal expectations of morality. The relationship between the Republican Party and white evangelical Christians has existed since the election of Ronald Reagan. This project examines the political history of white evangelicals in the United States. It analyzes recent data to compare the differences between white evangelicals and the general population and analyzes reports on white evangelicals during and after the 2016 election. This information is used to establish long-term historical trends that show why white evangelicals showed strong support both during and after the 2016 election within the broader historical context of white evangelicals’ relationship with politics. The results show that white evangelicals support
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