Podcast | Why Donald Trump continues to appeal to white evangelicals

Three experts on religion discuss the history, the meaning and the possible hypocrisy of the unlikely union.

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Faith leaders pray for Donald Trump

Faith leaders pray with President Donald Trump during a rally for evangelical supporters at the King Jesus International Ministry church in Miami on Jan. 3, 2020. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

When Donald Trump won the White House in 2016, he did so with the overwhelming support of white evangelical Christians. And through the tumultuous four years of his presidency, the faithful stood with him to the dismay of many.

Critics contend that it is the height of hypocrisy for a faith built on the teachings of Jesus Christ and guided by the Ted Commandments to empower a person who has chosen hubris over humility and is seemingly unbound by a number of the divine laws. 

For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast we posed that question to three experts: the Rev. Rob Schenck, the Rev. Lenny Duncan and Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez. 

The answer, they say, begins long before Trump descended that golden escalator to announce his presidential campaign, perhaps as far back as the faith’s very beginning.

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