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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[–] Cyberflunk 26 points 11 months ago (4 children)

30% of POLLED people who answered phones..

Not "of Americans" fuck this click bait shit.

Fuck the op, fuck the news sensationalizing this fucking lunatic shitgibbon

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Howabout fuck you, read the actual cited academic study that I've posted links to and come back with an actually valid criticism.

[–] WoahWoah 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

He would prefer to think it's just the media reporting that a sizeable percentage of the country not only disagrees with him but would probably smile as the person you're responding to was jailed or harmed.

Can't totally blame him. "OMG u fuktard itz tthu mediaz making cheeto poplar!!1!" is much easier to deal with than reckoning with the fact that a) he was elected once, and b) based on current polling, he's likely to be elected again.

It's quite literally the same problem of the right, just reversed. The media are the problem, let's not look at the reality that is quite apparent all around us because it's scary.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Rawstory is not the media you want to stake a hill out for. This is sensationalist on its face. And the study actually concluded that ~~~28% of Americans ~~ 21 percent of weekly church going Protestants believed he was anointed to win the 2020 election. That was all. Not that he's some kind of modern day Moses.

Edited because I found the author talking about the study.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Well if we are going based on what they said, its likely they havent read the actual source material and/or they have a problem with polling methodology.

Again, I am looking forward to a substantial statistical and or methodological criticism of the polls and studies referenced.

Its always fun watching people who have no idea how statistics or polling or scientific studies work try to criticize such things.

EDIT; Your explanation is possible as well. A lot of people have kneejerk reactions to things that clash with their worldview. See uh, nearly all of the entire history of politics and societies for all of history.

[–] jacksilver 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So I do tend to find these kinds of claims sensational, so I decided to look into the article and it's sources. First the article quotes an economists article which is referencing a survey from a Poly Sci associate professor from Denosian (sp?) Univeristy. That's not a good start, quoting a quote.

Sadly the economist article was paywalled, but I was able to find this article based off of the facts in the posted article https://religioninpublic.blog/2019/11/25/was-donald-trump-anointed-by-god-are-all-presidents-anointed-by-god/. This article seems to be what is being quoted, but not 100% sure (actually it's an updated post to what looks like the original survey). In this article, by the professor being quoted in the posted article, we see that they surveyed 1000 Protestant Christians and found 30% of those surveyed, that went to church weekly, believed that Trump was appointed by God.

So really not a good article at all. Not only are they not quoting original sources, but they get the facts horribly wrong. On top of that the original survey doesn't post information about how they conducted their survey, so not even a good job by the original source.

[–] Maggoty 0 points 11 months ago

Lmao, it's always some far more reasonable slice of society than the sensationalist headline says.

[–] Maggoty 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Or, and this is a radical concept I know, you could read the paywalled book and quote the relevant parts. Then we could decide if we want to purchase said book for ourselves.

Because this isn't a study. This article is a sensationalized reprint of an Economist article which usually treats books pretty softly. Almost like it's an advertisement. But I would never accuse such a respectable magazine of doing that. (Lol, I even like the Economist, but it's a bad habit of theirs)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It is a study, not a book.

My link works, learn how to internet.

I am not going to waste my entire day explaining to you an unsurprising result of the work of a team of Academic scholars because you demand that me, some person on the internet who does not get paid to do academic research, all of the ins and outs of a specific piece of academic research.

Get over yourself.

Maybe if you contact Cambridge University Press or the author of the Economist article or the Professors who wrote it, and ask politely, they can answer your questions.

[–] Maggoty 2 points 11 months ago

If you read it already then surely it's no problem to find the operative section? And Cambridge Press, (a publishing company for academic books) is selling it. They aren't going to give a copy away for free.

And it would be very surprising to find out 63 percent of religious people in the US see Trump as a God anointed president after having lost the election. Especially since the actual study is among weekly church going Protestants and cites 21 percent.

Also it's hilarious that you complain I'm asking you to do research when you've supposedly already read the material and then you tell me, "learn to Internet". I suspect I was figuring out Basic in DOS before you were born.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure you're aware of how polling works. It would take many years to contact all 350 million Americans.

[–] Maggoty 3 points 11 months ago

Polling has long since left phones behind. Anything that's pure phones is heavily skewed towards conservatives and older people.

[–] WoahWoah 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Read the actual study. And also, like... look around you, if/when you go outside, and actually pay attention. Have you not noticed?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You guys are looking at this all wrong. 43% of Americans were found to believe that God helped Tim Tebow throw touchdowns link while only 30% believe Trump was chosen. We can thus conclude that Trump has lost a significant portion of Touchdown Jesus evangelicals.

[–] Wogi 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd say the number of people who believe in sky wizards caring about touchdowns is much higher than the number of people who think the sky wizards want the Cheeto in power

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

lol, I don't think I fault this conclusion. Perhaps I've tried to extrapolate too much here >.<

[–] Maggoty 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know about him but I did. And it maths to about 6 percent of all American Adults. (21 percent of weekly church going Protestants).

The article is sensationalist. As usual.

[–] WoahWoah 1 points 11 months ago

I find your reasonable and informed comment insulting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yup. I've answered one political call, and it was about whether to dredge our local lake to put in more housing (they make it sound nicer than that). I've blocked the rest.