The Deep Roots of Our Hillary Hostility

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2016

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Earlier this week, ESPN’s analytics site FiveThirtyEight gave Hillary Clinton a 60 percent of winning the presidency in November. Should Clinton win this fall, however, it’s unlikely she’ll be thanking many evangelicals. According to a Pew Research Study from earlier this month, only 16 percent of evangelical voters said they would vote for her. Not only that, when asked about their motivation, an overwhelming number suggested that they were either voting for Donald Trump because they didn’t like Clinton or were only voting Clinton because they disliked Trump more. (Overall: 30 percent supported Trump and would vote for him, 45 percent said they would vote for Trump because they did not want Clinton to win, 10 percent would be voting against Trump for Clinton and only 6 percent said they would vote Clinton because they backed her. Read CT’s report.) This disdain has been around for a long time. Alan Noble, an English professor at Oklahoma Baptist University, remembers listening to talk radio disparaging Clinton back when he was a kid in the ’90s. “Every time I [hear] the name Clinton, there’s all this baggage, rhetoric, language, fear, anxiety, corruption, sliminess, conniving, big government baked into me [from when I was a child]” said Noble, who is also the editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture. What’s behind these visceral reactions? “The history of American evangelicalism is critical in understanding how many things Clinton stands for that contradict the deeply held values of politically engaged evangelicals since the 1960s,” said Kristin Du Mez, a historian at Calvin College and the author of a forthcoming book about Hillary Clinton’s faith. “On so many issues, Hillary Clinton—her politics and the way her faith informs [them]—run against the values that the religious right has held dear. … There are very real religious and political differences here.” Both Du Mez and Noble joined Morgan and Katelyn to discuss how Clinton’s “baking cookie” comments alienated her from stay-at-home moms, why she’s largely stopped standing up for evangelicals, and how gender has affected her popularity among Christians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion. Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:21.9	Even as Hillary Clinton and the Clintons together were really under siege by the religious
0:28.7	right, she would come out in defense of evangelicals.
0:32.9	She felt that they were being unfairly caricatured in the media and that they were addressing a spiritual
0:39.3	vacuum and a moral vacuum.
0:47.2	You are listening to Quick to Listen.
0:49.4	I'm Morgan Lee.
0:50.7	This is the week of the Democratic National Convention.
0:53.6	And we're going to be talking about
0:54.7	Hillary Clinton and her longstanding relationship with evangelicals today. To do that,
0:59.5	I am joined by Caitlin Beatty, who is actually here for one of the last times for a couple weeks,
1:04.3	huh? Yes, I am. I would say I'm going to miss you, but I'm going to be in Indonesia.
1:11.1	So don't lie.
1:14.0	Yeah, yeah.
1:15.0	But yes, I am the print managing editor here at Christianity today.
1:18.8	And I'm really grateful to be joined this particular week by two guests.
1:23.7	We have both Kristen Dumay and Alan Noble.
1:26.9	Kristen Dumay is a historian of American religion at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her specific research project she's working on is an examination of Clinton's Methodist's faith. It's called Journey of Faith, a religious history of Hillary Rodham Clinton. It brings to light the hidden influences of
1:45.2	progressive Christianity on American politics and society, and that's something that Kristen has
1:49.6	recently written about for the website, Religion and Politics, as well as the Washington Post.
1:54.4	Joining us as well is Alan Noble. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the website, Christ
	...

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