They're all Heathens: Trump casts democrats as anti-religious in appeal to conservative Christians

Sep 10

Article By Tammy Mitchell // EEW Magazine // Religion

President Donald Trump gives major love and attention to the conservative Christian community, which has resulted in their unflinching support for his administration despite the myriad scandals.

During a rally in North Carolina Monday, he essentially branded himself the champion of religious voters while simultaneously slamming democrats for not being “big believers in religion,” and doing a poor job of appealing to conservatives.

Trump, 73, who well knows how to keep his base happy, fired up the Fayetteville, NC crowd and prepared them to storm the polls in the upcoming presidential election or risk suffering the loss of their treasured religious freedoms.

“2020 is essentially just as important because they’ll try and take it away,” he said, stoking fears that liberals, if they win, will strip Christians’ rights, persecute them and force conservatives to act against their pro-life, pro-traditional marriage convictions.

“Whether it has to do with religion or evangelicals [that] are here tonight, and they’re all over the place--” Trump said, before being interrupted by crowd cheers, “what we’ve done for them, and for religion is so important. The other side, I don't think they're big believers. They're not big believers in religion. That I can tell you.”

Although democratic presidential contenders Joe Biden and Cory Booker, among others, are vocal about their Christian faith, Trump’s omission of this fact makes the idealization of a certain type of Christian—white and conservative—more effective.

According to Pew Research Center, around 35 percent of American adults—half of all Christians—consider themselves evangelical or born-again. White evangelical Protestants are among the staunchest conservative and republican voters in the electorate, with seven-in-ten saying they approve of the way he is handling his job as president.

Trump knows the pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ message of liberals does not play well with his audience—and he exploits that truth every chance he gets.

"You listen to some of them. They're trying,” said Trump, mockingly. “They're trying to put out little statements. They're not working too well.”

While looking into the audience, he doubled down, saying, “Those statements are a little bit, sort of, not too good, huh?”

The Commander-In-Chief delivered this speech during his appearance in support of fellow conservative Republican, Dan Bishop, who is going against Dan McCready to fill the Congress seat vacated by the former 9th District Rep.

The president, who identifies as Christian, also praised bold supporter Rev. Franklin Graham for the disaster relief efforts of his charity, Samaritan's Purse, in Boone, NC.