Why do so many evangelical Christians support former President Donald Trump despite his decades of documented ungodly behavior?

An in-depth report from The Economist shows that it has a simple explanation: They believe that God personally appointed him to rule the United States.

In fact, the report cites a survey conducted by Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe that around 30 percent of Americans believe Trump “was anointed by God to become president.”

  • vexikron@lemmy.zipOP
    302·
    11 months ago

    In fact, the report cites a survey conducted by Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe that around 30 percent of Americans believe Trump “was anointed by God to become president.”

    Not a Pew Research Poll.

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/full-armor-of-god/2B21DC6F17E88C6DF7275F45A66DF104

    I’ll see if I can find it on open scholar or something similar.

    EDIT: Here we go!

    https://annas-archive.org/md5/da76eb110551fd4028c9c0a8e185f0ce

    You can thank Cambridge for paywalling scientific knowledge for why the article is so hard to find.

    I mean it took me about 10 minutes, but I guess most people do not know how to do research on the internet.

    • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 months ago

      So I dug into this, and the following excerpt is the only piece of information related to the claim in question:

      In the run up to the 2020 election, religious conservative public figures – for example, Rick Perry – claimed that Donald Trump was anointed by God; Perry called him “the chosen one” (see Djupe and Burge 2019). The head of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Council, Paula White, went a bit further: “To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God, and I won’t do that.” In May 2019, 21.4 percent of Protestants believed Trump was anointed by God to be president, as did 29 percent of evangelicals, and a majority of Pentecostals (like Paula White). Belief in Trump’s anointing increased considerably closer to the 2020 election (Djupe and Burge 2020; Edsall 2020).

      Here are the original sources of the claim:

      1. Djupe and Burge 2019
      2. Djupe and Burge 2020
      3. Edsall 2020 (archive link)

      I’ll keep editing this comment as I get further into it.

      Edit 1: added archive link for Edsall 2020

      Edit 2: fixed the link for Djupe and Burge 2019

      Edit 3: Here is an archive link to the Economist article.

      Edit 4: relevant quote from the Economist article:

      In a survey conducted by Mr Djupe shortly before the election, three in ten Americans believed Mr Trump “was anointed by God to become president”.

      Edit 5: Conclusion

      It seems as though the Economist article, and therefore the Raw Story and various other articles referencing it, are not correct. I’ve looked through a couple dozen resources at this point, and I cannot find any publications from Djupe or Burge substantiating this “30% of Americans” claim. However, I did find

      However, I did find this:

      Other surveys have shown similar results. A 2020 Pew Research Center survey asked Americans, not just church-attenders, about God’s role in recent presidential elections. They found that 32 percent of the more than 6,000 respondents, a sizable minority, believed Trump’s election must be part of God’s overall plan—though only 5 percent of those respondents believed God chose Trump because of his policies.

      So maybe the 30% finding was from Pew after all? I’m going to send all this to the Economist to ask for clarification.

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 months ago

        I was able to find what I think is the original source: https://religioninpublic.blog/2019/11/25/was-donald-trump-anointed-by-god-are-all-presidents-anointed-by-god/

        It was a survey of 1000 protestant Christians (in 2019) and they found that 30% of those surveyed, who went to church once a week, thought Trump was appointed by God. So terrible reporting all around.

        Why I believe this is the original source is the article in the link is by the professor referenced in the original article/economist.

        • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
          2·
          11 months ago

          This source linked under “Djupe and Burge 2019” in my original comment :-)

          It is also cited directly in Djupe’s Cambridge publication that OP posted.

          • jacksilver@lemmy.world
            2·
            11 months ago

            Ah, I didn’t see that initially. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the study was terribly misquoted, and when looking at the original publication I didn’t see the same stats shared in the blog post that were being quoted. Overall, it seems like a game of telephone was played with wrong numbers and implications being published.