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Top evangelicals are backing away from Donald Trump
SEMAFOR ^ | 12/05/2022 | Shelby Talcott

Posted on 12/05/2022 12:28:56 PM PST by thegagline

Call it a crisis of faith. Despite appointing the conservative judges who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade — and fervently courting the religious right during his presidency — prominent evangelicals are beginning to shy away from supporting former President Donald Trump’s third bid for office.

A major factor is the same issue driving leaders in other parts of the conservative coalition away from his campaign: They’re not sure he can win.

“Evangelicals, conservatives and freedom-loving Americans … the common question is: Who can win in 2024?” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Family Leader, told Semafor. “And I believe that’s Trump’s highest hurdle.”

Vander Plaats, who co-chaired Ted Cruz’s campaign in 2016, said he’d had many conversations with conservatives who “really like the former president” but want to move forward with “a vision for the future versus a complaint or critique about the past.”

Some Evangelical leaders are also tiring of the former president’s obsession with trying to somehow overturn the previous election and his ever-growing list of personal scandals and inflammatory statements.

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council who prayed with Trump in office and defended him at critical moments, suggested Trump remains too focused on the 2020 election and that evangelicals “don’t want a lot of drama” this time around. He said the former president needed to earn their vote by speaking about issues that resonated with them instead — he pointed to Trump’s frequent references to a “war on Christmas” in 2016 as an example.

Vander Plaats and Perkins aren’t the only ones with doubts about Trump 2024. American Renewal Project leader David Lane trashed the former president just last week in his bi-weekly letter to evangelical Christian pastors, according to Religion News.

Christian Zionist activist Mike Evans, who helped pull together the evangelical vote for Trump in 2016, wrote in an essay shared with The Washington Post that even though the president kept his word on issues like judges, evangelicals must stop treating him “like he was an idol” and move on.

“Donald Trump can’t save America,” Evans wrote. “He can’t even save himself. He used us to win the White House.” ***


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: evangelicals; exodus; shelbytalcott; trump
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Evangelical exodus.
1 posted on 12/05/2022 12:28:56 PM PST by thegagline
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To: thegagline

Why are we still posting garbage from Drudge ?


2 posted on 12/05/2022 12:31:49 PM PST by libh8er
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To: thegagline

Not surprising seeing them desert a man who lost 3 elections in a row. People want winners.


3 posted on 12/05/2022 12:32:15 PM PST by nwrep
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To: thegagline

Does the name “Evangelicals” even mean anything anymore. most of them have pretty much backed away from the bible.


4 posted on 12/05/2022 12:33:04 PM PST by Revel
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To: nwrep

Did the GOP not win the House? Did the DEMs find more votes? What happened?


5 posted on 12/05/2022 12:34:20 PM PST by frogjerk (More people have died trusting the government than not trusting the government.)
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To: thegagline

enter stage Left....Mike Pence.


6 posted on 12/05/2022 12:35:45 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: thegagline

The “Never Trumpers” are having a field day in FR here lately....SMH....


7 posted on 12/05/2022 12:37:01 PM PST by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: thegagline

“Top”


8 posted on 12/05/2022 12:37:23 PM PST by JSM_Liberty
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To: thegagline

They shun him for speaking his mind. I embrace him for speaking mine.

I’m an evangelical, first, last and always.


9 posted on 12/05/2022 12:37:31 PM PST by Migraine
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To: thegagline

Not so sure.
Trump is not the ideal image for evangelicals but he advances mostly proper things
The alternative is a DNC candidate who is a thousand times less Christian and Who advocates the worst possible immoral values in the history of the Republic.

No real Christian or Jew, no person of any kind with decent moral values — could ever vote for the DNC slime types — especially if someone who gets most things right like Trump is running.

Most people also like his Harry Truman like candor, though it does occasionally walk the thin line a bit


10 posted on 12/05/2022 12:38:22 PM PST by faithhopecharity (“Politicians are not born. They're excreted.” Marcus Tillius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: libh8er

It does not link to Drudge.

Have you been looking at Drudge?


11 posted on 12/05/2022 12:38:55 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: thegagline

Se Afro is an extreme far left site so take it with a grain of salt.


12 posted on 12/05/2022 12:38:56 PM PST by circlecity (at)
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To: circlecity

“Semafor. Darn auto correct


13 posted on 12/05/2022 12:39:26 PM PST by circlecity (at)
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To: nwrep

He lost his 2020 general election bid

2018 was more a of Paul Ryan screwing us over then Trump losing the house

2022 McCarthy got the house back, I call that a win.
Sure we lost a couple “vanity” races but overall 2022 wasn’t the red wave we were expecting, but it wasn’t a Dem win either. We won the superbowl by two touch downs instead of 7, we still won.


14 posted on 12/05/2022 12:39:50 PM PST by Trump.Deplorable (Woke Fascists are a threat to our republic )
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To: nwrep

Compare the country during the four years of Trump with the, so far, two years of Biden...

Compare the country during the four years of Trump with eight years of Obama...

Anyone who does NOT want Trump back in the White House is either an idiot or an enemy of America...PERIOD


15 posted on 12/05/2022 12:40:59 PM PST by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: thegagline

These people are completely clueless.


16 posted on 12/05/2022 12:41:32 PM PST by stanne
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To: libh8er

The link doesn’t go to Drudge.


17 posted on 12/05/2022 12:41:33 PM PST by thegagline (Sic semper tyrannis! Goldwater 2024)
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To: thegagline

“really like the former president” but want to move forward with “a vision for the future versus a complaint or critique about the past.”


This is how I and others feel

We need someone to move forward, not looking backwards complaining about spilled milk

Trump 2016 was awesome


18 posted on 12/05/2022 12:41:58 PM PST by Trump.Deplorable (Woke Fascists are a threat to our republic )
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To: nwrep

So you believe the last elections were on the up and up???

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....


19 posted on 12/05/2022 12:42:16 PM PST by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: nwrep

Deserting the man that got wade overturned. Says more about them than it does about Trump.


20 posted on 12/05/2022 12:43:13 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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