Quote:
Originally Posted by well named
Forgive me, I haven't read the whole thread and I'm just practicing work avoidance, but do you have any handy links by way of evidence for a large and recent split?
There are a number of splits that can be observed. The most obvious split happens along primarily along racial lines (white vs. non-white). Of course, there was always a split, but the gap has become more pronounced.
It's true that some of that is confounded by generational divergence (as the younger generation of Christians is more diverse than previous generations). But I think it's too much to claim that the split is *only* generational.
Here's an example (January 2017) that is a direct response to Trump's election:
https://auburnseminary.org/voices/white-christians/
The signatories of the letter are (almost?) all white Christians, some of whom have a level of prominence in Evangelical circles (such as Rachel Held Evans, acknowledging that she was sometimes controversial as a female progressive voice).
Mark Labberton (President of Fuller Theological Seminary) collected a series of writings from a number of Evangelical thinkers in 2018 that challenges the value of the Evangelical identity:
https://www.ivpress.com/still-evangelical
These writings contain more racially diverse voices. And this is also in direct response to the Trump presidency.
Outside of white Evangelicalism, there seems to be movement among Mainline Protestants (which are primarily white):
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/5/180587...midterms-trump
Quote:
Perhaps most notably of all, white mainline Protestants are the only religious demographic to change their minds on Trump since his inauguration. While a September Public Religion Research Institute poll found that nearly all religious blocs, from white evangelicals to the religiously unaffiliated, remain constant in their stated views on Trump, approval of the president has dropped by 9 percentage points among white mainline Protestants, to 48 percent.
It's worth noting that in the first sentence, it's hard for non-white demographics to change their minds on Trump because he was already so poorly viewed to begin with.
There's also the strong statement from the Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal), which I don't think is in the habit of making strongly political statements:
https://cathedral.org/have-we-no-dec...ent-trump.html
I think you're also seeing new fault lines appear over issues such as immigration policy and gun control, but that's harder to track because the connection to religious convictions is (sadly) less clear. A lot of that will be generational again, but I think there's a lot of softening of positions on the second amendment and many Christians are struggling with the morality of how the administration is handling the lives of children at the border. I don't know how this plays out demographically or whether this can be seen in polling, but I'm quite confident that it's another cleave in the landscape.
So I think it's reasonable to say that there are new divisions that have formed within Christianity over Trump's presidency and the events that have happened during that time. There were other divisions that pre-existed the election, but I think those gaps have magnified as white Evangelicals have really started to dig in their heels in their support for Trump and white nationalist trends are being squeezed out in the process.
Edit: There may be another rift happening over abortion. I think some of the hard line stances that have been taken by some states is causing people to reevaluate their positions a bit. I'm not seeing the level of celebration over those laws as I have expected, and that silence on this particular issue is saying something.