SPIRIT MOVES
Trump finds fans in faithful Both have strong beliefs
WHEN RICK PERRY bowed out of the Republican race for President on Friday, he preached a little Scripture to Donald Trump before he left.
“Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant; it betrays the example of Christ,” Perry said.
Asked about Perry’s parting shot, Trump — a longtime student of the art of insult — turned the other cheek.
He probably wanted to avoid a biblical brawl. Trump may not fit the classic profile of a Bible-belt favorite, but he is appealing to a significant number of the evangelical voters who can make a splash in GOP primaries.
A former Democrat who has in the past supported abortion rights and called himself a “liberal” on health care, the thricemarried Trump has been assailed as a poser by everyone from rivals Jeb Bush and Bobby Jindal to commentators George Will and Glenn Beck.
But he’s still the national front-runner in the GOP contest — thanks, in part, to church-going folk who want to back a viable winner as much as anyone else.
“In terms of his public statements, Mr. Trump has made himself minimally acceptable to faith-based voters,” said the University of Akron’s John Green.
When Trump, a Protestant, says he believes in God, or finds satisfaction in attending church, “these are kind of pro forma statements — the kind of statement that any candidate would make,” Green said.
Team Trump did not respond to a request for comment about the candidate’s religious observance and appeal to evangelicals.
But David Brody, chief political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network and host of “The Brody File,” says evangelical voters aren’t looking at Trump as their future “pastor-in-chief.”
Instead, Brody said, “Evangelicals are sick and tired of being used as political pawns in the Republican leadership ‘Game of Thrones’ — and along comes Donald Trump, who, for better or for worse, [IS] coming across as honest and truth-telling. And evangelicals are loving every moment of it.”
Like Trump, Brody said, evangelicals are used to getting called out for being vocal about their beliefs. What’s more, “Evangelicals operate in this world of Biblical absolutes: right and wrong. Good and evil. This is the kinship between evangelicals and Donald Trump.”
In early-voting Iowa, where faith voters propelled former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to a caucus victory in 2008 and sealed the deal for ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum four years later, a recent Monmouth University poll showed Trump with the support of 23% of evangelical voters, second only to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s 29%.
The businessman’s team is clearly aware of the need to court the faithful: In January, months before his formal launch, Trump had fliers printed up for Iowans that featured his 1959 Confirmation class photo from the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens.
In South Carolina, where nearly twothirds of Republican primary voters say they’re evangelical Christians, Monmouth’s latest poll found Trump had at 33% support among faith voters to Carson’s 18%.
The backing comes despite Trump having named himself as a member of the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan — only to have the church report he is not “active” there.
The candidate has also raised eyebrows by recalling taking “my little cracker” in Communion and confessing that he has not, to his recollection, asked God to grant him forgiveness.
Trump “is doing well among all groups despite clear discrepancies between their beliefs and his record. This disconnect is probably most noticeable among evangelical voters because of their history of demanding ideological consistency,” Monmouth’s Patrick Murray said.
The larger-than-life former “Apprentice” star “has not been constrained by any of the normal rules of politics,” Murray said.
“It seems that all groups of GOP voters feel their leaders have let them down, and so they are using Trump to send a message.”
When the field winnows, said Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, the lines between Trump and his rivals may become clearer.
For now, “Trump is taking up all the oxygen. Everybody knows who he is,” Tooley said. “Evangelicals watch
reality TV too.”