World News – UA – US elections: Evangelical Christians not always white and racist

Cori Bush, Democratic candidate for Congress from Missouri: Pastor Cori is an African American Democrat who represents a long tradition of African American evangelicals Photograph: Michael B Thomas / Getty

World’s Eyes On U.S. Election Whatever the outcome, the world’s most powerful nation braces for an avalanche of outrage and recriminations Meanwhile, I brace myself for more media stereotypes about the « right-wing evangelical Christians »

Religion and politics are often closely linked in the United States For example, an evangelical pastor should be elected to represent the 1st Congressional District of Missouri in the House of Representatives

Nothing unusual here, you might say The unexpected twists of this story are that Cori Bush (or Pastor Cori, as she prefers to be known) is an African-American single mom, that she’s a Democrat, that she rose to prominence as a community organizer at the 2014 Ferguson protests against police brutality and racism, and she belongs firmly to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party

Alexandra Rojas, Justice Democrats, commented on Bush’s first victory: “The squad is here to stay, and it’s growing.” Pastor Cori represents a long tradition of African-American evangelicals who believe they are called by God to address the issue of race through political activism

It is no coincidence that the successful struggle against racial segregation in the United States was led by Baptist ministers such as Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy Even on this side of the Atlantic, the lazy stereotype of evangelical Christians is that they are predominantly white, possibly racist, and staunch supporters of Donald Trump.

Last year, during a book launch in Dublin where I had contributed to a chapter of a work on diversity and interfaith dialogue, I was challenged by a young Muslim who demanded to find out why I had been invited to participate in such a project since « Evangelicals are right-wing and sectarian against everyone »

Part of the problem lies with the categories used by US pollsters. « Blacks » and « Hispanics » are treated as separate demographic groups, and « Evangelicals » are used as a subset of the white population ( although evangelical Christianity is more prevalent among African Americans than among white Americans)

So while we are told that « 81% of evangelicals voted for Trump » in 2016, this refers to white evangelicals In reality, when we factor in black and Hispanic evangelicals, Trump received a bit more half of the evangelical vote

In the United States, as in Ireland, there are a myriad of reasons for political affiliation and loyalty Abortion, of course, is a burning issue, but so is immigration and race

Some of my white evangelical friends in the United States despise Trump’s character and many of his policies – but will stick their noses and vote for him because they couldn’t support the Democratic abortion platform

Many of my African American friends, despite their pro-life beliefs, will stand up and vote for Joe Biden because they perceive Trump as racist And a considerable number of Hispanic evangelicals (perhaps the segment of Fastest Growing American Evangelicalism) Will Vote Democrat Because Immigration Policy Is The Issue That Affects Them Most

While the majority of evangelicals on both sides of the Atlantic, including myself, stand firmly on the pro-life side of the abortion debate, this position is not uniform A significant minority of those Americans who ‘identify as evangelicals argue that abortion is legal in most or all circumstances (31% of whites and 45% of African-American evangelicals)

Pastor Cori Bush is a passionate abortion rights advocate, using her own experience as a violent rape victim to argue against proposed restrictions in Missouri

Lazy stereotypes shouldn’t apply to evangelicals any more than to Muslims, atheists or Catholics Yes, it is true that there are evangelicals in the United States who form the base of Trump, and there are evangelicals in Ireland with extremely illiberal views

It is also true that after the murder of George Floyd the most prominent voices against racism in Ireland were those of black mothers who also belonged to evangelical churches

Given the diversity of evangelicalism in North America and Ireland, it would be nice to read the word « evangelical » in the Irish media without it being invariably preceded by the words « right-wing »

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The party must tirelessly focus on making its mark in the few policy areas that matter most to it and its supporters.

Donald Trump, evangelism, Joe Biden