As they head to the polls, nearly all religious Americans say the coronavirus is the most critical issue facing the country, a new study by PRRI shows. But there’s one notable exception: white evangelicals.
Only 35 per cent of white evangelicals said the coronavirus is of critical concern, PRRI’s 11th annual American Values Survey, released on Monday, shows. Among this group, abortion and terrorism top the list of critical concerns. No other religious group identified abortion among its top three concerns.
On this and other issues, white evangelicals are outliers among US religious groups.
“White evangelical Protestants do seem to be out on a limb on their policy views and views of Trump,” said Natalie Jackson, PRRI’s director of research.
“It’s more a fact of other types of Christians – mainline Protestants and Catholics – shifting away toward a more centrist outlook and increasingly leaving white evangelicals out on their own as the one religious group that very much supports Trump and is locked in with their party ID.”
The study, conducted in September among 2,538 US adults, shows that overall, 35 per cent of Americans approve of how President Donald Trump has handled the coronavirus pandemic, while 65 per cent disapprove.
But white evangelicals approve of the job Trump is doing at a rate of 76 per cent, as compared to 52 per cent of white mainline Protestants and 49 per cent of white Catholics.
Heading into the 2020 election, their support for the President remains steadfast.
Majorities of every other religious group say the President has damaged the dignity of the office of president. But only 36 per cent of white evangelicals believe that. And among white evangelicals who identify as Republicans, only 20 per cent say he’s damaged the dignity of the office.
White evangelicals are also the only major religious group to say the country is moving in the right direction, with 59 per cent agreeing. By comparison, only 40 per cent of white mainline Protestants, 39 per cent of white Catholics, 40 per cent of Hispanic Protestants and 28 per cent of Hispanic Catholics said the country is headed in the right direction.
That assessment drops even further among non-Christian and unaffiliated Americans. Only 24 per cent of non-Christian religious Americans and 18 per cent of religiously unaffiliated Americans say the country is headed in the right direction.
The one area where religious groups appeared to agree was regarding Trump’s behaviour in comparison with his predecessors. A majority of white evangelicals (55 per cent) said they wish Trump behaved more like his predecessors, compared to 66 per cent each of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics, and 67 per cent of Hispanic Protestants. Seventy-one per cent of Hispanic Catholics and non-Christian religious Americans wished Trump’s behaviour was more in line with his predecessors.
On other issues, such as whether God has granted the US a special role in history, the divisions surfaced once again: A strong majority (71 per cent) of white evangelicals said the US plays a special role – more than any other religious group. Only 35 per cent of white Catholics, 32 per cent of white mainline Protestants, and 15 per cent of religiously unaffiliated Americans agree with the statement about the US’ special role. But even among evangelicals, there was a notable decline in support for the statement from four years ago, when 82 per cent of white evangelicals said the same.
The survey also found there were no religious groups in which a majority agreed the US sets a good moral example for the world. Only 33 per cent of white Catholics, 29 per cent of white mainline Protestants and 28 per cent of white evangelicals agreed. Black Protestants (14 per cent) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (10 per cent) were even less likely to agree America sets a good moral example.
The margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 2.6 percentage points at the 95 per cent level of confidence.
