{"id":37323,"date":"2024-09-11T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=37323"},"modified":"2024-09-28T12:07:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T12:07:42","slug":"kamala-harris-message-to-women-on-freedom-helps-explain-why-black-and-white-christians-are-deeply-divided-over-support-for-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/kamala-harris-message-to-women-on-freedom-helps-explain-why-black-and-white-christians-are-deeply-divided-over-support-for-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris\u2019 message to women on \u2018freedom\u2019 helps explain why Black and white Christians are deeply divided over support for Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Youssef Chouhoud<\/a>, Christopher Newport University<\/a><\/em>; Dara Delgado<\/a>, Allegheny College<\/a><\/em>; Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr.<\/a>, Washington College<\/a><\/em>, and Leah Payne<\/a>, George Fox University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just days after President Joe Biden<\/a> withdrew from the 2024 presidential race in July, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the annual meeting of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis<\/a>, where she emphasized the importance of both religious faith and political freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris contrasted<\/a> her stance on abortion rights with that of former President Donald Trump, stating, \u201cAcross our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights,\u201d Harris said. \u201cAnd in the face of these attacks, we must continue to stand together in defense of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By centering \u201cfreedom\u201d in her campaign, Harris invoked a key element of Black identity and spirituality rooted in the historic struggle for liberation by formerly enslaved people. This legacy partly drives an attitudinal divide between Black and white Christians, especially on issues such as abortion and support for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As political science and religion scholars, we view Harris\u2019 remarks as a subtle reminder to voters that Black religious life in the U.S. has long involved an appeal to people of all faiths to use their beliefs<\/a> to advance social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her message stands in sharp contrast to Trump\u2019s conservative allies, who have pushed for restrictions on personal freedoms concerning abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The racial divide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To better understand the relationship between race, religion and support for Trump, we fielded an online, national survey in June 2024 supported by the Public Religion Research Institute<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that conducts public opinion polls on a variety of topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to compare the views of white and Black Christians, our sample of nearly 1,500 adults included over 700 participants from each racial group. We asked half the sample to indicate their level of agreement with five statements commonly used to measure Christian nationalist beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those items include support for religious-based laws and the belief that the U.S. was conceived as a Christian nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then categorized participants according to whether they agreed with most of the statements (\u201cadherents\u201d and \u201csympathizers\u201d) or disagreed with most of them (\u201cskeptics\u201d and \u201crejectors\u201d). Over one-third of both Black and white Christians agreed with most Christian nationalist ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Former U.S. President Donald Trump talks at a community meeting at the 180 Church in Detroit, Mich., on June 15, 2024. Jim Watson\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We found that Black Christian nationalists are far less likely to support Trump, however, compared with their white counterparts. Additionally, they do not back far-right policies, like those outlined in Project 2025<\/a>, the Heritage Foundation\u2019s plan to implement a conservative agenda across the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two groups also differ greatly in their evaluation of Trump. Only 17% of Black Christian nationalists expressed a favorable view toward the former president, compared with 49% of white Christian nationalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chosen one?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These racial differences are even more pronounced when we examined the attitudes of charismatics \u2013 a group of devout Christians<\/a> who in the late 20th century began emphasizing Pentecostal practices such as divine healing<\/a> and speaking in tongues<\/a>, a language of indecipherable sounds believed to be a direct communication with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All participants in our survey \u2013 760 white Americans and 734 Black Americans \u2013 were asked whether they had personally experienced or witnessed practices of charismatic Christianity. Those include receiving what they believed to be a direct revelation from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While only 23% of white Americans in the study were categorized as charismatic, that figure doubled to 51% of Black Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although prominent white Christian nationalists frequently characterize Trump as \u201cthe chosen one<\/a>,\u201d we found that only 15% of Black charismatics express favorable views of him compared with 52% of white charismatics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing fight for freedom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Black radical tradition<\/a>, helps explain how Black charismatics can share so much with their white counterparts \u2013 even an embrace of Christian nationalism \u2013 but diverge when it comes to Trump and abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris walks on stage before delivering her keynote speech at Zeta Phi Beta sorority\u2019s Grand Boul\u00e9 in Indianapolis on July 24, 2024. Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In its contemporary form, the Black radical tradition is an ideological framework that asks its adherents to actively resist policies that threaten racial equality and bodily autonomy. Abortion rights fit squarely within this political tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a 2014 Religious Landscape Survey<\/a> conducted by the Pew Research Center, the majority of Black Christians say that abortion should be legal<\/a>. Those Christians include such denominations as Baptists, Presbyterians and Pentecostals who are not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, that majority support for abortion among Black Christians has remained stable and mirrors similar support among Black voters overall. In a 2024 Pew Research Center<\/a> poll, for instance, 73% of Black voters said abortion should be legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her speech before members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Harris said that she understood the difficulty in balancing one\u2019s faith with political resistance. But as she explained<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, who believe in reproductive freedom, will fight for a woman\u2019s right to choose, because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After Harris accepted Biden\u2019s endorsement, her longtime pastor, Rev. Amos Brown, prayed that Harris would advance her campaign \u201cin the spirit of our ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That ancestral spirit includes the Black radical tradition of political resistance \u2013 and the ongoing fight for freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youssef Chouhoud<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Christopher Newport University<\/a><\/em>; Dara Delgado<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Black Studies, Allegheny College<\/a><\/em>; Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr.<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Washington College<\/a><\/em>, and Leah Payne<\/a>, Associate Professor of American Religious History, George Fox University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Youssef Chouhoud, Christopher Newport University; Dara Delgado, Allegheny College; Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr., Washington College, and Leah Payne, George Fox University Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race in July, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the annual meeting of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis, where she emphasized the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":37325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,46,4],"tags":[529,771,479,7319,885,891,886,860,14129,475],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37616,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37323\/revisions\/37616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}