Chunk 9: “In the blue corner, hailing from heaven, above, it’s God!”
There's a wonderful scene at the end of series two of the television show, "The West Wing", written by the peerless Aaron Sorkin. Things aren't going particularly well for President Bartlet, and so, alone in the Washington Cathedral, he decides to really let God have it. Speaking partiallly in Latin (as you do), he screeches at the Almighty; calls him/her a "feckless thug". It really is one of the best things you'll ever see on screen.
The scenario is completely fictitious, but it does dramatise the very close ties in America between politics and religion. Which brings us to Donald Trump, a man who, during the 2016 election campaign, once attempted to put money on a communion plate.
No one knows how many of the 10 Commandments President Trump has broken, but if indeed he did use use campaign money to pay porn star, Stormy Daniels, $130,000, he broke two at once: “thou shalt not commit adultery” and “thou shalt not steal”. Perhaps he was trying to save time.
Anyway, it makes this chart all the more remarkable …
In speeches he has given as president, Trump has invoked religious terms nearly as twice as often as his predecessor, Barack Obama. In fact, he leaves all the most recent residents of the White House for dust.
Obviously, Trump is speaking in terms he believes his voting base want to hear, and despite his questionable personal morals, he’s working to regularly reassure them - in their language - that he has their backs, particularly on the social issues they most care about: right to life, school prayer, etc.
So who exactly populates this base?
Well, 70.6% of people in the US describe themselves as being Christians, and 25.4% of those as Evangelicals.
“Evangelical" can be tricky to define (in Australia, many refer to themselves as “born again Christians”). They have four basic beliefs:
the bible is at the centre of their faith
their sins were atoned through Jesus's death on the cross
they have experienced personal conversion and salvation
they are compelled to share the word of the gospel.
In the 2016 election, about 26% of all Americans who voted were Evangelicals, and they backed Trump (79%) over Clinton (18%). Additionally, 56% of non-Evangelical Christians also chose Trump vs 35% for Clinton. Even notional Christians sided with Trump 49% vs 47% for Clinton.
So these voters really are Trump’s bread (the unrisen kind) and butter. He simply cannot win reelection without them. That’s why he’s taken to saying things like, Joe Biden will “hurt God”. (Which kind of begs the question, hurt God with what? God has a pretty good career record. As I recall, he/she took out Ramses II pretty handily in that whole Red Sea Showdown.)
Now, whether or not you believe Trump that every bad story about him is “fake news”, there’s no doubt that he has put everyone, including his supporters, through the wringer during an exhaustive four years. But at the same time, he has also delivered a majority on the Supreme Court, and appointed almost a quarter of all active federal judges in the US, to protect the issues conservative voters really care about. The question is, will that be enough to make them look past everything else and give him a second term in office?
Finally, you have to wonder how long it is until religion begins to play a more obvious role here in Australian political life. Because oddly, while the Australian Constitution - essentially, the set of rules by which our country is governed - contains two references to religion, the American Constitution contains none whatsoever.
Surely, with elected officials like former PM, Tony Abbott, having trained as a Catholic Seminarian, and current PM, Scott Morrison, well known to clap along with the Guy Sebastian crowd, it’s only a matter of time.
