A 2014 Gallup poll found that “very religious” people tend to vote Republican. Exit polls from the 2014 midterm elections showed 78 percent of white evangelicals and 60 percent of white Catholics voted Republican. At a time when less religious people, nonreligious people and minority voters all lean Democratic, conservative Christians are the GOP’s most formidable and reliable voting bloc. Why, when the modern GOP is anathema to Christian values, do Christians reliably and consistently vote Republican?
Donald Trump finds himself atop the Republican field in spite of, or perhaps because of, his racist demagoguery and rampant misogyny. For those who don’t know, Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and implied that Megyn Kelly, a moderator at the first Republican debate, asked him tough questions because she had “blood coming out of her wherever.” At the same time, conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter make a living out of stoking fear and hatred of minorities, queer communities and immigrants. Coulter has claimed that soccer’s surging popularity in the United States, especially among immigrants, “is a sign of the nation’s moral decay.” Cultural conservatism’s credibility continues to wane as stories, like Josh Duggar’s, surface.
As a teenager, Josh Duggar sexually abused his siblings. More recently, it was revealed he has a pornography addiction. Duggar was a hero of the Christian right: he served as executive director of FRC Action (a socially conservative political action committee) and went around the country preaching “family values” and denouncing abortion, divorce and gay marriage.
When Republicans aren’t promoting Duggar’s socially conservative message, they are fighting to end programs that protect the poor, cutting funding for schools or putting the interests of fossil fuel corporations ahead of the environment. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, you might expect the party of Christians to stand with the oppressed (just like Jesus did) but Republican leaders like Chris Christie urge inaction, saying, “Laws can’t change this.”
While The Bible tells us to “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy” (Psalms 82:3), Republicans side with big-money interests. While the Bible tells us to be stewards of nature, Republicans reject scientific consensus on climate change and insist that destroying the environment is the best way to create jobs. A central message of Christianity — unconditional love for ourselves, each other and for God — could not be further from the realities of Republican politics and Republican politicians. Republican political messaging taps into people’s fear, hatred and xenophobia.
Perhaps Christian conservatives believe the GOP is the best party for those who hold conservative family values as Democrats’ support of legal abortion and gay marriage might be wholly unpalatable.
Realistically, abortion and gay marriage are both settled issues in America. Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for over four decades. It is simply disingenuous to suggest abortion will be recriminalized; however, what we do know is that access to contraception and sex education can lower the number of unwanted pregnancies, and by extension, abortions performed. The practical pro-lifer should turn his back on Republicans who consistently oppose programs which would expand sex education or contraceptive access. At the same time, Americans’ popular support for gay marriage has surged consistently in the past few years while politically the already slim opportunity window for those against gay marriage closed completely with the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling earlier this summer.
Furthermore, if family values voters care so deeply about the fetus, surely they value the bond between mother and newborn as sacrosanct? Yet there is no mandated paid maternity leave in the United States. If the Republican Party is the party of family values, then why does it oppose reform that would allow working mothers to be with their children in those first few months of life?
Christianity is less about negative morality (what we shouldn’t do) and more about what we should do: love each other, protect our natural environment and help the poor. Unfortunately, the Republican Party focuses far less on the evils of poverty than it does about the perceived dangers of gay marriage. That reality alone should be enough to make a good Christian leave the Republican Party for good.
Ben Rudgley is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at b.rudgley@cavalierdaily.com.
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