this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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United States | News & Politics

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Why do so many evangelical Christians support former President Donald Trump despite his decades of documented ungodly behavior?

An in-depth report from The Economist shows that it has a simple explanation: They believe that God personally appointed him to rule the United States.

In fact, the report cites a survey conducted by Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe that around 30 percent of Americans believe Trump "was anointed by God to become president."

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I know I'm going to step in it by commenting, but the polls are usually accurate. It's how they're reported that's not. The data from polls themselves often say how limited in scope they are, but that doesn't make a good headline and never makes it into the story. It takes a real nerd to be interested in stats and real stats are boring.

[โ€“] Maggoty 1 points 10 months ago

Oh yeah, from the study author in 2019 when the poll ran.

We put a survey into the field in May of 2019 that assessed the opinions of just over 1,000 Protestant Christians. We asked two questions regarding the anointing of presidents by God.

The first asked if all presidents are anointed by God, while the second asked if Donald Trump was specifically anointed by God to win the 2016 election. In our sample, just 21.4% believed Donald Trump was specifically anointed by God to be president, but that figure increases among groups who believe in modern day prophets and a God who is active in the daily affairs of the world.

Slightly more white evangelicals (29%) agreed that Trump was anointed by God, but among white Pentecostals, like Paula White, that figure shot up to 53%.