Series examines rural evangelicals' support for Trump - Entrepreneur Generations

Forest County, Wisconsin
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A story from The Guardian examines the role of rural evangelical Christians in getting Trump elected. They zeroed in on the Midwest where many counties that Obama carried in 2012 went to Trump in 2016. Those rural victories helped deliver swing states to Trump and won him the presidency, even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, Chris McGreal reports.

Trump dominated rural areas nationwide, especially among white evangelical Christians, who are disproportionately rural. In exit polls, about 80 percent of white evangelicals said they voted for Trump. Research has identified many reasons for this: fears of losing their rights, fears of losing white cultural primacy, and resentment of "coastal elites" while rural economies still struggled to recover from the recession. Many of those fears were fanned by evangelical media sources that have filled the void left by shuttering local newspapers.

The Guardian is writing a series of three stories about three rural counties that flipped from Obama to Trump, one each in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, to gauge whether the President will likely win there again.

In Forest County, Wisconsin, local pastor Franz Gerber said he was disturbed that many in his congregation appear to worship Trump more than Jesus. "It seems like there are many evangelical Christians that are willing to die on the hill of supporting the Republican president, supporting Donald J Trump. And to me, that hill is not worth dying on. No matter who the candidate is, no matter who the individual is," Gerber told McGreal. "To put all your hope into that individual is a dangerous road. Scripture would warn us against that."

Gerber said that many in the county of 9,000, which includes two Native American reservations, have strained relationships because of politics. Gerber said he voted for Trump because he wanted conservative Supreme Court justices and anti-abortion laws, but said now he might consider voting third-party, McGreal reports.

Farmer and former local GOP party official Jennifer Nery said she regrets her vote and thinks many others do too, though she believes they're being quiet about it in an attempt not to ruffle feathers. Her change of heart led to a falling out with her friend Terri Burl, now the Forest County Republican Party chair, McGreal reports.

Burl says she doesn't think the president's support is declining in rural areas, and waves away notions that the president should not receive support because of his morality. "People always say, look at how he treats people, his affairs, how he cheated on his wife. People like me say I’m not voting for him to be my pastor, my father, my role model. I’m voting for him to get some things done in Washington D.C. that have never been done before. We forgive him because of other things," Burl told McGreal.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2tIVYFj Series examines rural evangelicals' support for Trump - Entrepreneur Generations

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