Donald Trump, a 77-year-old Bible salesman from Palm Beach, Florida, has emerged as the nation’s most prominent Christian leader. Trump is running for president as a divinely chosen champion of White Christians, promising to sanctify their grievances, destroy their perceived enemies, bolster their social status, and grant them the power to impose an anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ, White-centric Christian nationalism from coast to coast. That Trump doesn’t attend church and has obviously never read the book that he hawks for $59.99, seems of interest exclusively to his political opponents.

What might catch the attention of some evangelical conservatives, however, is that Trump’s ostentatious embrace of White Christian militantism coincides with a precipitous decline in religious affiliation in the US. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, one-quarter of Americans in 2023 said they were religiously unaffiliated. “Unaffiliated” is the only religious category experiencing growth. In a single decade, from 2013 to 2023, the percentage of Americans saying that religion is the most important thing, or among the most important things, in their life plummeted to 53% from 72%.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    297 months ago

    That’s correlation, not causation, at best. In fact, it might be the other way around.

    The precipitous decline in Christianity is more likely the reason they’re getting more aggressive.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      97 months ago

      Yeah. Actually it wouldn’t surprise me that he makes a trump church and urged ppl to go to that instead.

      • @linearchaos
        link
        English
        27 months ago

        If he doesn’t get in this is a foregone conclusion. Untaxable donations, tax shelter for purchases. Every Trump property will become a church campus, every collection attempt religious oppression.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
        link
        English
        27 months ago

        I mean the logo for Christianity is already a lowercase t.

    • @Passerby6497
      link
      English
      4
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      The precipitous decline in Christianity is more likely the reason they’re getting more aggressive.

      That’s exactly what this is

      Since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” This accelerating trend is reshaping the U.S. religious landscape, leading many people to wonder what the future of religion in America might look like.

      It’s a 35 year old trend they’re trying to pin on the wannabe fascist in chief.