(1) How Evangelicals Helped Trump Win |TIME
Falwell says many in the media and political class might have been less surprised at the election’s outcome if they better understand the evangelical community. “Evangelical theology is all about forgiveness,” he says. “When you look at the issues, he ended up being the dream candidate for conservatives and evangelicals. The evangelical community has not been divided on Trump, just the leadership—the people were smarter than their leaders.”
(2) Trump win resets culture war debate on abortion, LGBT rights |AP
Kelly Shackelford, head of First Liberty Institute, a legal group that specializes in religious freedom cases, said that, for his cause, the environment will transform from “brutal” under the Obama administration to friendly given GOP control of both Congress and the White House. His clients include two Christian bakers in Oregon who were fined for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
“Many of us who fight for religious freedom have felt in the last four or even eight years there was a lot of overreaching that was wrong,” said Shackelford, who was among hundreds of religious conservatives who met with Trump last June. “To have someone who is president-elect, who says I’m going to put an end to this … we’re going to go back to a country built on religious freedom. That makes us very hopeful.”
Among the election’s repercussions will be a renewed campaign, in state legislatures and in Congress, to pass tough anti-abortion legislation. Religious conservatives will press for far-reaching conscience protections and a repeal of regulations they said violated their religious liberty. And the push to let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice at school, strongly backed by President Barack Obama, may wither in the face of GOP resistance.
(3) Catholics, white evangelicals were key to Trump’s victory |Deseret News
…Trump succeeded in his pitch to Catholic voters, which included a focus on increasing abortion restrictions, America Magazine reported.
“The Trump campaign promised that he would appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices, and he made a concerted effort to court Catholic voters, through the appointment of a Catholic advisory council, a letter writing campaign to Catholic leaders and a high-profile appearance on Catholic media in the days leading up to the election,” the article noted.
As with evangelicals, there was a racial divide within the Catholic community, and Clinton was more compelling to minority voters.
“Sixty percent of white Catholics voted for Trump, compared to 37 percent who supported Clinton. In stark contrast, two-thirds (67 percent) of Hispanic Catholic voters favored Clinton in the election, while about one-quarter (26 percent) voted for Trump,” according to PRRI’s analysis. …
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