NEWSWEEK
Recent comments by Donald Trump on abortion that have angered some evangelical Christians are unlikely to cost him their votes in November’s presidential election, according to a number of experts on politics and theology.
[…] Trump’s video on Wednesday sparked an angry response from some Christian conservative commentators, with Ben Zeisloft, editor of The Republic Sentinel, saying, “I will not vote for Donald Trump unless something very drastic changes,” adding that Trump “refuses to do his duty under King Jesus and use his federal power to protect all humans under his jurisdiction.”
However speaking to Newsweek, Richard Flory, an expert on evangelical Christianity who heads the University of South California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture, argued in practice the move is unlikely to cost Trump many evangelical votes.
He said: “No matter what Trump says, about anything, the vast majority of evangelicals are going to vote for Trump … I see those claims that Trump won’t get their vote as empty threats; no matter what Trump says, they’re going to interpret it so that it makes themselves feel better about voting for him, and then cast their ballots for him.
“In reality, who else are they going to vote for … Given their ideological commitments, they simply do not have an option other than voting for Trump or abstaining from voting for President—there isn’t another candidate that they could conceive of voting for. That said, Trump may not get the 80 percent of evangelicals he got in 2016, but regardless, the majority will vote for Trump no matter what he says, or does.”
