Free Republic

In 2016, most of the polls were wrong, period. And polls predicting that Hillary Clinton would run away with the Catholic vote proved more wishful than accurate. In the run-up to the election, only the IBD-TIPP poll consistently pointed to a Trump win among Catholics, as CRUX noted last week. Almost all the others suggested a significant margin of victory for Clinton. Now that the voting is over, however, preliminary results indicate Trump decisively won a majority of those self-identifying as Catholics, by 52 to 45 percent. By contrast, President Barack Obama won Catholics narrowly, by a margin of 50...

EWTN: Donald Trump In His Most Revealing Interview Yet! Irondale, AL, Oct. 25, 2016 -- At 8 p.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 27, EWTN’s “The World Over” with Host Raymond Arroyo will air an exclusive interview with Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, which will be of interest to people across the United States. “He reveals the reason he switched his position on the life issue, talks about religious liberty, and speaks to women’s concerns about his candidacy. We also spoke about his prayer life, whether he has a favorite saint, and a lot more.” Said Arroyo: “Honestly, this is the most...

Poll: White evangelical preference: Trump: 69% Hillary: 15%

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2016/10/19/white-evangelicals-stand-donald-trump-surveys-say/92302706/

Evangelicals Didn’t Even Study for This Test ...this year, LifeWay used more stringent criteria for evangelical faith, as defined by some group called the National Association of Evangelicals. Only participants who called the Bible their highest authority, said personal evangelism is important, and indicated that trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way of salvation, were labeled “evangelical.” They totaled 586 survey-takers. Everyone expected them to perform better than most Americans. No one expected them to perform worse. Seven in ten evangelicals—more than the population at large—said that Jesus was the first being God created. Fifty-six percent...

As Donald Trump’s lewd remarks and insults have created a major divide in the political arena, the surprising support from evangelicals have surprised everyone. Pastor Franklin Graham took to his Facebook page Saturday to defend the evangelical leaders who have remained in Trump’s corner. “A lot of people are slamming evangelicals for supposedly giving Donald J. Trump a pass. That’s simply not true. No one is giving him a pass. I’m certainly not, and I’ve not met an evangelical yet who condones his language or inexcusable behavior from over a decade ago. However, he has apologized to his wife, his...

As one of Trump’s staunchest advocates through ... incessant attacks,... acclaimed Christian author Eric Metaxas has taken heat for his continued defense of the candidate and insists that Christians will be held guilty before God if the Democratic rival Hillary Clinton wins. To give evangelicals and other conservatives a better idea of why he has unwavering and vigorous support...... Metaxas offered an unapologetic and bold explanation. “God will not hold us guiltless [if Hillary Clinton is elected],”.... A no-vote is a vote for Hillary. Metaxas stands with ... key conservative Christian leaders who will not rescind their support... The Christian...

You have to wonder, what is it about Donald Trump that frightens liberals, media, academia and the establishment class in politics? Those who see Donald as a hateful, unstable, shallow, boisterous billionaire need to consider whether they are responding to the man and what he actually says or reacting to the man's caricature. Barack Obama deliberately ran as a blank canvas. Trump is the opposite. He is in some strange way a mirror that reflects whatever you are. Some people "get" him and others don't—and those who "don't" never will. The real spirit of this conflict is laid bare if...

Christian leader Franklin Graham defended Donald Trump on Friday after a week of unvetted allegations by the liberal media by Hillary Clinton supporters. Franklin reminds Christians this election is not about Donald Trump’s actions from 11 years ago or Hillary Clinton’s many lies. This election is about the future of the Supreme Court and religious freedom. From Franklin’s Facebook page: A lot of people are slamming evangelicals for supposedly giving Donald J. Trump a pass. That’s simply not true. No one is giving him a pass. I’m certainly not, and I’ve not met an evangelical yet who condones his language...

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri and Center for American Progress fellow John Halpin mocked conservative Catholicism as an "amazing bastardization of the faith" in new emails released by WikiLeaks.

I have a lot of friends and readers who are baffled by what they consider to be the misguided “evangelical Christian support” for Donald Trump in America.It doesn’t make sense, especially in the light of the recent appalling locker room comments , revealed by Trump’s enemies(and by God, for there is nothing hidden that won’t be brought to light and nothing secret that won’t be shouted from the housetops!) . It just doesn’t make sense that although Trump is so manifestly immoral, Evangelicals would stick by him, even when the ‘brave’ leadership of the Republican party runs for the tall...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) Leaders of religious conservative groups largely stood behind Donald Trump on Saturday... (snip) "Naturally I’m disappointed," said Steve Scheffler, head of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. "But, you know, the Bible tells me that we are all sinners saved by grace and I don't think there's probably a person alive that I know of that hasn’t made some mistakes in the past." He said Clinton has peccadilloes of her own, most notably marital woes with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "So yes, I will vote for Donald Trump. I’m not excusing his behavior at all....

(snip) As the defections were building Saturday morning, evangelical leader Gary Bauer sent a mass email headlined, "Gary Bauer Says Values Voters Continue to Support Trump-Pence Ticket." "The ten-year old tape of a private conversation in which Donald Trump uses grossly inappropriate language does not change the reality of the choice facing this country," Bauer wrote. Franklin Graham, who has not officially endorsed Trump, wrote a Facebook post that seemed to suggest evangelical voters should stick with the Republican nominee. "The crude comments made by Donald J. Trump more than 11 years ago cannot be defended," Graham wrote. "But the...

Leaders of religious conservative groups largely stood behind Donald Trump on Saturday, the day after vulgar sexual comments he made about women surfaced online, but some expressed concern that the U.S. Republican presidential nominee's remarks could depress evangelical turnout on Election Day. Most evangelical leaders did not condemn Trump, and instead pointed to an urgent need to prevent Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from winning the presidency, reshaping the Supreme Court and implementing liberal policies. The latest blow to Trump's campaign came after a 2005 video surfaced of the then-reality TV star talking on an open microphone about groping women and...

Reading "A Declaration by American Evangelicals Concerning Donald Trump" reminded me of the truth that what a document doesn't say is often as important as what it does.A survey of the initial signers reveals that its most famous signers have long been on the Progressive wing of American Protestantism: Tony Campolo, Rich Cizik, Claiborne, Wes Granberg-Michaelson, Rachel Held Evans, Jo Anne Lyon, McLaren, David Neff, Ron Sider (of Evangelicals for Social Action), and Jim Wallis (of Sojourners). A more candid title would have been "A Declaration by American Progressive Evangelicals Concerning Donald Trump."The letter's specific objections to Trump begin in...

Family Research Council head Tony Perkins told BuzzFeed News his support for Trump is about conservative policy stances, not personal values. “My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values, it is based upon shared concerns about issues such as: justices on the Supreme Court that ignore the constitution, America’s continued vulnerability to Islamic terrorists and the systematic attack on religious liberty that we’ve seen in the last 7 1/2 years,” Perkins said. And Faith and Freedom Coalition president Ralph Reed cited abortion, the economy and the Middle East as keys to his continued backing of...

The fact that Donald Trump said in 2005 that he could grab women “by the pussy” because he’s famous doesn’t seem to be changing how social conservative leaders feel about him. Evangelicals who opposed him before still aren’t fans. And the ones in his camp aren’t phased by the recording. That’s because this isn’t about how much they like the brash billionaire; it’s about how unflinching they are in their opposition to Hillary Clinton. “People of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defund Planned Parenthood, defend religious liberty and oppose the Iran nuclear deal,” said...

Imperfect elections and flawed candidates often make for complicated and difficult choices for Christians. But sometimes historic moments arise when more is at stake than partisan politics--when the meaning and integrity of our faith hangs in the balance. This is one of those moments. A significant mistake in American politics is the media’s continued identification of “evangelical” with mostly white, politically conservative, older men. We are not those evangelicals. The media’s narrow labels of our community perpetuate stereotypes, ignore our diversity, and fail to accurately represent views expressed by the full body of evangelical Christians.

Shortened title. Full title: Faith Leaders Call To ‘Repentance’ Progressive Catholics and Protestants Aiding George Soros’ ‘Anti-Christian’ Agenda An open letter signed by more than 75 of America’s evangelical and Catholic leaders calls upon politically progressive groups that claim to be members of a traditional “faith” to refuse financial assistance from leftwing billionaire political activist George Soros and his political allies. The group of leaders – which calls itself the American Association of Evangelicals – writes in its letter: After years of earnest but less public attempts, it is now with heavy hearts, and a hope for justice and restoration,...

Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz has struck a nerve. The pastor took to Facebook Sunday to explain why his church — made up of Hillsong’s NYC campuses — will not be using the phrase “all lives matter.” Instead, Lentz wrote, his church will be saying “black lives matter.” The pastor wrote: At THIS church, we are not saying ‘all lives matter’ right now because this is a logical assumption that most reasonable people agree with. All lives are not at risk right now. We ARE saying BLACK LIVES MATTER. Because, right now, black lives apparently are worth LESS on our...