In These evangelicals behind Trump *, a very detailed book investigating the evangelical support of Donald Trump, André Gagné, professor of theology at Concordia University in Montreal (Canada), explains what brings these Christians closer to the American president and how they implemented a strategy very sophisticated influence.
What is the electoral weight of the evangelicals who support Donald Trump, in the United States?
It is estimated that there are approximately 95 million evangelicals in the United States of all groups. This includes charismatic evangelicals, who are Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters, who represent 12-15% of the American population. Note that not all evangelicals support Donald Trump. Some are progressive, and most African Americans side with Democrats. But the evangelicals vote for him at more than 80%.
It is important to underline their impressive momentum at the global level: they are currently close to 660 million and will be more than 1 billion in 2050, according to some estimates, thus catching up to the 1.3 billion Catholics. Evangelicals are the fastest growing religious group in the world right now.
Who are they exactly, on a religious level?
They form a rather difficult whole to define with precision. If they consider themselves to be part of Protestantism, we can try to distinguish them with four main criteria. First, they are believers who have lived the experience of conversion. We also talk about “Born again” (second birth) in the United States: this conversion represents for them a new beginning which will allow them to dedicate their life to Christ. Historically, we have also spoken of “Alarm clock”, which suggested that their faith was chosen and practiced, as opposed to an inherited Christianity, which would function as a cultural veneer.
“Evangelicals are the fastest growing religious group in the world right now”
Evangelicals also make the Bible their main source of authority in matters of belief and practice. It is the foundation of their faith. Then, they place the message of Jesus’ crucifixion at the center of their belief: the human being cannot be saved without the sacrifice that Jesus made by his death on the cross. Finally, there is a real social activism among them, which involves proselytizing and sharing the faith with others.
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