Crunching the Faith Numbers

We are all called into the body of Christ, with Jesus Himself at the head. If we are keeping focused on 
Him and following His commands, it brings us together in true unity. Ephesians 4 states:
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We have opportunities day by day to disagree - social media is a great example, in many instances, of how to disagree in the wrong way. But, we are called as believers to set a higher standard.  The enemy, through deception and distraction, gets us focused on the wrong things sometimes, and we have to guard against those threats that would weaken our ability to carry out the mission of the gospel. If we are living in love, we can communicate effectively in the power of the Spirit.

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There is a direct relationship between peace in the body of Christ and adherence to the Scriptures, and we can look to the Bible to help bring us together as a powerful force in our culture.  In adjacent verses 
in Colossians 3, we can see a connection between peace and truth:
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in 
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

We can continue to contend for unity based on the truth of the Scripture.  We can find a common purpose in Christ.

The exit poll data has begun to come in, and it appears that generally speaking, President Trump held his percentage with white evangelical voters. Interestingly enough, news outlets are telling a different story.

ReligionNews.com declared that: 

Exit polls conducted with voters by Edison Research for the National Election Pool and by AP VoteCast show that white evangelicals and Catholics changed their minds very little from 2016.

Support for Trump among white evangelicals remained constant (82%), according to VoteCast, but somewhat lower in the NEP exit poll (76%) — in keeping with 2016 results.

The story added that, "Likewise, Catholics, who evenly split their vote in 2016, were also split between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden this year...Trump got 47% of the overall Catholic vote this time, according to the NEP, and 50%, according to VoteCast."

If there was a decline, the decline in the religious vote may have been enough to lessen the President's impact in the so-called Rust Belt states, according to Politico, which reported:

Between 47 percent and 50 percent of Catholic voters supported Trump — a small decline from 2016, but enough to cost him the Rust Belt states that mattered most to his path to victory. Nationally, the president carried white Catholics by a 15-point margin, according to AP/VoteCast data, marking a significant decline from his 33-point margin of victory over Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Trump’s slippage with white evangelicals was less pronounced — surveys showed him carrying 76 percent to 78 percent of the white, born-again Christian vote — a slight decrease from 2016, when he won support from about 8 in 10 white evangelicals. But it had far-reaching implications for the president in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, where current vote totals show him losing by less than 1 percent.

While one could charge Hillary Clinton with ignoring evangelical voters, the former Vice-President's campaign actually embraced them. Josh Dickson, faith engagement director for the Biden campaign, stated, “In the Midwest, we saw gains that in a number of ways outpaced our margin of victory,” adding, “The reason we won in these key states is because of the coalition we built. I think the work we did to engage evangelicals and Catholics undoubtedly helped us get there.”

Politico quotes Michael Wear, described as a former faith adviser in the Obama administration. “To be clear, if Biden would have performed as poorly as Clinton did four years ago among white evangelicals, he would have lost Georgia and this election.”  Wear is a leader in a organization called the AND Campaign and has been a speaker for the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

But, the organization My Faith Votes tells a bit of a different story. On its website, it declares that, "Evangelical voter turnout increased by 20% outpacing even the overall voter increase of 15%."  Reporting that Trump took 81% of the white evangelical votes, compared to 14% for Biden, it states: "Biden not only received a lower number of the evangelical voter turnout compared to Trump, he received the lowest share of the evangelical vote ever recorded for a major presidential candidate. Christians overwhelmingly rejected Biden and Harris’s policies of late-term abortion, redefining marriage and gender, and diminishing religious freedom in the name of 'equality.'”  But, I think you still have to consider the significance of those 5% of white evangelicals who voted for "none of the above."  That certainly could have made a difference in a close election.  

So, these stories show us the breakdown of how Christians may have voted, but a Pew survey tells us there are fewer voters who identify as believers, according to The Christian Post, which states:

The share of registered voters in the United States who say they are Christian has declined by about 15% since 2008 while the number of religiously unaffiliated voters has nearly doubled, Pew Research Center data suggests.

Pew drew the data from a balanced survey of over 360,000 registered voters surveyed over a 25-year span that include over 12,000 voters questioned in 2018 and 2019.

The data indicates that 64% of all registered voters surveyed in 2019 self-identified as Christian. That figure is down from 79% of registered voters surveyed in 2008 who identified themselves as followers of Christ.

So, what do we do with this information?  First of all, we need to continue to be involved in the process.  This was a watershed election in the eyes of many, and while the result is still being disputed and litigated, we can continue to pray and stand.  Even a Trump victory will not mitigate threats to our religious freedom and the attempted advancement of a radical social agenda that conflicts with Scriptural principles.  Our trust has to continue ultimately to be in the Lord - we don't look to politicians to save us, but we certainly know that God will use them to serve His purpose, and He calls us to pray and to speak truth.

We also have to recapture a definition about true unity in the Church.  In the political realm, it has been contended that politicians calling for "unity" really mean that they demand that those who disagree get on board so that they can implement their agenda.  In the spiritual realm, our unity should always be centered on truth, based on the Scriptures.  There will be elements over which we disagree, yet, we can strive to unite for the common goal of glorifying Christ and carrying out His mission to proclaim the gospel.