The Trump landslide - and Christian identity in the USA
THE RESPONSE of American religious leaders to the election of Donald Trump on November 5 has been somewhat subdued. Although the popular vote was relatively close—a difference of fewer than 3 million out of nearly 154 million votes cast—Trump won the Electoral College vote handily, 312 to 226.
Mainline Protestant leaders pledged to stay the course. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, issued a letter the morning after the election. “No matter the party in power,” he wrote, “we are one church, and we will continue to fulfill our baptismal covenant by proclaiming in word and example the Good News of God in Christ, striving for justice and peace among all people, and protecting the dignity of every human being.
William J. Barber II, director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, said, “Our deepest moral values which are outlined in the scriptures are justice and love and truth and mercy, and irregardless of how our nation votes, from a moral and theological standpoint, a majority vote does not mean right.” The African American minister added, “We don’t have the luxury to quit.”
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Randall Balmer
An Episcopal priest, is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College and the author of more than a dozen books, including Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right.