tmsnrt.rs\/2y3HxbV<\/a>) <\/p>\nWEAKENING BASE <\/h3>\n
But data from the nationwide online Reuters\/Ipsos poll conducted from Jan. 22 to Aug. 25 suggest Trump has been unable to prevent his evangelical support from sliding in line with his overall ratings. The majority of those polled last month who described themselves as both \u201cwhite\u201d and a \u201cborn-again or evangelical Christian\u201d said they approved of Trump, but considerably fewer than when he took office almost eight months ago. <\/p>\n
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the poll. <\/p>\n
During a four-week period in August, 62 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of Trump, while 33 percent disapproved of the president and 5 percent said they had \u201cmixed feelings.\u201d <\/p>\n
That is a drop from the first four weeks of Trump\u2019s presidency, from late January to mid February, when 73 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of his performance while 23 percent disapproved and 5 percent had mixed feelings. <\/p>\n
The poll was divided into eight four-week periods, with each including about 2,000 people and a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of about 2 percentage points. <\/p>\n
The declines are broadly in line with those recorded among all adult Americans. <\/p>\n
In interviews, 10 of the surveyed conservative Christians said they were not concerned about Trump\u2019s religion. Rather, they questioned whether he was doing enough to help average Americans and the frequent chaos in the White House. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t go a week without someone leaving his administration. There is no stability in our government,\u201d said Robert Waldram, a 52-year-old Baptist churchgoer from Williamsburg, Virginia, in a telephone interview. <\/p>\n
He said he voted for Trump as a better option than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But Waldram said he was tired of Trump\u2019s \u201cchildlike tantrums on Twitter.\u201d <\/p>\n
MENTIONING GOD <\/h3>\n
In his first 200 days in office, Trump mentioned God about 100 times in public remarks, excluding the standard \u201cGod bless America\u201d that presidents routinely end speeches with, something his ardent supporters welcome as readiness to eschew political correctness. <\/p>\n
By this point in their presidencies, Democrat Barack Obama had mentioned God 43 times, while Republican George W. Bush had referred to God in 60 instances. <\/p>\n
Jeffress, one of the first prominent evangelical pastors to back Trump for president, said his God talk was apolitical. <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that cynical people would say this is just for political expediency, but … I believe this comes out of some deep beliefs that he has personally,\u201d Jeffress said. <\/p>\n
Trump, who describes himself as Presbyterian, was not known to be an avid churchgoer before becoming president and critics have said his blunders on basic biblical knowledge, harsh attacks on political adversaries, and his demeaning comments about women clash with Christian principles. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe, himself, doesn\u2019t have the most sterling track record in terms of either church attendance or professed or displayed knowledge of scripture,\u201d Gary Scott Smith, a historian and author of \u201cReligion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents,\u201d said of Trump. <\/p>\n
The pastors involved with Trump\u2019s evangelical advisory board describe him, though, as very inquisitive about faith and more thoughtful on religion than he might appear in public and conservative pastors have continued to support him through various firestorms. <\/p>\n
Evangelicals have had \u201cunprecedented\u201d White House access in this administration, said Richard Land, a board member and president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, a Christian college. <\/p>\n
After Trump\u2019s response to violence between white nationalists and left-wing protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to two of his business advisory councils disbanding, there were questions about the evangelical board\u2019s future. <\/p>\n
Brooklyn, New York, megachurch pastor A.R. Bernard resigned, but others remained, saying it was their job to provide advice and counsel to Trump, even when they disagree with him, and to press the president on Christian issues. <\/p>\n
Johnnie Moore, a board member and former official at Liberty University, a religious school, said: \u201cWe have a deep personal relationship with him … He has prioritized issues that are important to us and we appreciate that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Additional reporting by Chris Kahn and Fatima Bhojani; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Tomasz Janowski<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/PoliticsNews\/~3\/ZVLb003LPh0\/pastors-stand-firm-as-trumps-u-s-evangelical-base-weakens-idUSKCN1BQ15V<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As President Donald Trump bowed his head in the Oval Office earlier this month, Texas Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress and other U.S. religious leaders laid their hands on Trump\u2019s back and prayed for Hurricane Harvey\u2019s victims. With TV cameras and reporters watching, the scene was a powerful reminder of one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-91318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}