
*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-RELIGION-VOTE, originally transmitted on Nov. 9, 2016.
(RNS) A strong white evangelical, Catholic and Mormon vote for Donald Trump belied the condemnation many religious leaders had leveled at the tycoon and paved the way for a stunning upset after a long and polarizing campaign.
Preliminary exit polls indicate these religious groups voted for Trump by strong margins — in some cases larger than they had given to GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.
Christians who described themselves as evangelical and born-again gave Trump 81 percent of their votes, up 3 percentage points from their support for Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton garnered 16 percent of their votes.
Evangelical support for Trump surged even as prominent evangelicals, including Southern Baptist Russell Moore, railed against Trump’s behavior toward immigrants, women and other groups as un-Christian.“Donald Trump made the most full-throated and aggressive appeal to evangelical voters … since Ronald Reagan spoke to the Religious Roundtable in August of 1980,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. “He made these voters of faith a centerpiece of his campaign.” Continue reading
Jakarta’s Christian governor was interrogated by police on Monday after tens of thousands of angry Muslims took to the streets on Friday to demand that he be jailed for allegedly insulting Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
“Dutch politician Geert Wilders has spent years speaking out against the threat Islam poses to his country, and now he finds himself in legal trouble for it. …The charges stem from a March 2014 rally in which Wilders asked a room full of supporters if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the audience chanted, “Fewer, fewer!” Wilders responded, “Well, we’ll arrange that, then.” This led the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders for “offending members of a group based on their race, and hate speech and discrimination,” according to the
“The Obama administration’s desire for a universal health-care system soon may be fulfilled – in Bangladesh. It is there that U.S. taxpayers potentially face an initial $90 million “investment” solely to design such a system. …The administration through USAID expressed a commitment to help the government of Bangladesh, or GOB, achieve its objective of providing UHC by 2032. The agency acknowledged, however, that several obstacles stand in the way attaining that goal – including a GOB trend of spending proportionally less money each year on health care for Bangladeshis.” –
“The number of professing Christians
“The issue is that participants in reader forums often post copyrighted material, such as an image or an article. Under the current law, as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, website owners are protected from massive monetary liability based on the actions of their users if they meet the law’s requirements, such as accepting notifications of copyright conflicts and taking part in a notice-and-takedown procedure for complaints. …EFF warned that the little guys will suffer. What’s truly frightening about this rule is who it’s likely to affect the most. YouTube and Facebook will be fine. It’s small companies, small nonprofits, and activist groups that are at risk – the same groups that are most poorly poised to fight copyright infringement suits.” –
“Tuesday was the first day of November and Chicago has already recorded its first murder. The newest crime numbers from the Chicago Police Department are staggering.” –
“Though Professor
“-no comments posted on this Vatican video.” –
“On the surface, this seems like such a simple request…it’s not! After digging and finding the TRUE agenda on the climate change scam, it’s very clear that this entire thing is an effort to redistribute wealth around the world. Don’t believe us? Just check out the comments from the people attending the Paris Climate Summit:” –