Incidentally, when we use the word "Evangelicals" here, we are using it in the manner it is most used in US political commentary, to refer to conservative, white Protestants. There are white Evangelicals who are politically liberal. But they are few. They are so few that 81 percent of white Evangelicals who voted in 2016 voted for Trump.
There are also African American Evangelicals. They vote for Democrats. There are some Latino Evangelicals, though most are not Protestants.
Such Evangelicals have long been self-described "values voters" and the "moral majority". The idea of "values" here does not refer to paying taxes for more and better public education, medical care, social services and the like that benefit the society at large and should stem from the Christian values of compassion and care for the poor. It does not refer to defending the oppressed or welcoming refugees.
Rather, it refers to a very singular idea of "family" and what needs to be done in order to "protect" it. Two of the more powerful religious-political organisations in the US are called Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Evangelicals oppose any policy, behaviour or practice that they deem threatening to a monogamous two-gender marriage. [...]
The fervent commitment of Evangelicals, like Pence, to Israel, seems to be rooted in a belief that it is necessary for Israel to be back in the hands of the Jews for the second coming of Jesus Christ to take place. According to this belief, the Rapture would send all the good true Christians to heaven and leave behind the bad and non-believers - including the Jews - in an all-inclusive hell on earth. That means that Christian Zionism concludes with an act of the ultimate anti-Semitism.
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