This is like a game of political telephone. PJMedia linked Raw Story which linked the Sociology of Religion article, but only quoted a WaPo piece on the article. sailor quoted PJMedia's take. Here is Raw Story's take:
According to a survey in the journal
Sociology of Religion, the reason evangelicals continue to support President Donald Trump despite alleged moral failings comes from their priorities being tied to Christian nationalism.
Voters’ religious doctrine has nothing to do with those who stand with Trump. “Their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation,” are paramount to their continued support,
The Washington Post wrote.
The Post compared the recent survey to the fifth wave of the Baylor Religion Survey that surveyed Americans shortly after the inauguration in 2017. They combined responses to six specific questions in which people were asked if they agreed or disagreed.
The questions involved declaring the U.S. a Christian nation, and the U.S. is “part of God’s plan,” saying government should advocate Christian values, display Christian symbols, allow prayer in schools and other similar questions.
The findings ultimately showed the more someone believed that the U.S. should be a Christian nation, the more likely they are to vote for and support Trump, even after controlling for other influences such as politics, party and cultural factors.
(Washington Post collection of findings from religious surveys)
Respondents’ specific religious affiliation also didn’t factor in their decision. However, “antagonism toward Muslims” was as important to those surveyed as Christian nationalism.
“How much a U.S. voter feared Muslims was as significant in predicting who voted for Trump as Christian nationalism,”
The Post explained. “Overall the strongest predictors of Trump voting were the usual suspects of political identity and race, followed closely by Islamophobia and Christian nationalism.”
The findings ultimately reveal that regardless of Trump’s questionable statements, affairs, alleged assaults and morality, they see him making Christian heritage a priority.
“Ironically, Christian nationalism is focused on preserving a perceived Christian identity for America irrespective of the means by which such a project would be achieved,”
The Post commented. It explains why white Christians believe Trump is a tool from God, even if he isn’t a person of faith or godliness himself.
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Meanwhile, here is the abstract from the Sociology of Religion article:
[h=2]Abstract[/h]
Why did Americans vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election? Social scientists have proposed a variety of explanations, including economic dissatisfaction, sexism, racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia. The current study establishes that, independent of these influences, voting for Trump was, at least for many Americans, a symbolic defense of the United States’ perceived Christian heritage. Data from a national probability sample of Americans surveyed soon after the 2016 election shows that greater adherence to Christian nationalist ideology was a robust predictor of voting for Trump, even after controlling for economic dissatisfaction, sexism, anti-black prejudice, anti-Muslim refugee attitudes, and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as measures of religion, sociodemographics, and political identity more generally. These findings indicate that Christian nationalist ideology—although correlated with a variety of class-based, sexist, racist, and ethnocentric views—is not synonymous with, reducible to, or strictly epiphenomenal of such views. Rather, Christian nationalism operates as a unique and independent ideology that can influence political actions by calling forth a defense of mythological narratives about America’s distinctively Christian heritage and future.
Note how PJmedia brushes over much of the article by saying, "Some aspects of this Christian nationalism are
arguably wrong and potentially dangerous, but..."
