One of the interesting questions about the 2016 Republican presidential primaries is why evangelical Christians are voting for Donald Trump. His language is salty (he had to give up swearing going into the South Carolina primary) and often impudent, he’s twice divorced – in other words, he certainly doesn’t seem to be the type of candidate evangelicals would support.
However, political polling we did 30 years ago just after I started my company provides an explanation of why he is getting so many of their votes. We found that evangelicals are drawn toward politics by messianic figures. Although Trump may not be Christ-like, the term messianic does have other synonyms such as “liberator” or “defender,” words that Trump supporters might easily use to describe him.
Our goal in that poll was to determine whether there were any particular issues that might bring more evangelical Christians into the political process. The major presumption was that they were pro-life on abortion and that that issue could be the linchpin to get them involved.
Working with Christian conservative leaders in a northern city, we designed a questionnaire to get to the heart of our presumptions. The filter questions went through long and careful steps to assure that the only people we surveyed were absolutely evangelical Christians.
The poll was designed to find out 1) what contemporary political and religious leaders they liked or disliked; 2) what issues were important to them, with the emphasis on abortion; 3) other than issues, what else might persuade them to get involved in politics; and 4) who they were demographically.
However, political polling we did 30 years ago just after I started my company provides an explanation of why he is getting so many of their votes. We found that evangelicals are drawn toward politics by messianic figures. Although Trump may not be Christ-like, the term messianic does have other synonyms such as “liberator” or “defender,” words that Trump supporters might easily use to describe him.
Our goal in that poll was to determine whether there were any particular issues that might bring more evangelical Christians into the political process. The major presumption was that they were pro-life on abortion and that that issue could be the linchpin to get them involved.
Working with Christian conservative leaders in a northern city, we designed a questionnaire to get to the heart of our presumptions. The filter questions went through long and careful steps to assure that the only people we surveyed were absolutely evangelical Christians.
The poll was designed to find out 1) what contemporary political and religious leaders they liked or disliked; 2) what issues were important to them, with the emphasis on abortion; 3) other than issues, what else might persuade them to get involved in politics; and 4) who they were demographically.
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