When I read Ryan Burge’s opinion piece in the Sunday, October 31, NY Times titled “Why ‘Evangelical’ Is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican,’” a refrain from the 1965 Lovin’ Spoonful hit, “Do You Believe in Magic” echoed over and over in my head.
Burge wrote:
…a recent report from the Pew Research Center came as a huge surprise. Its most shocking revelation was that, between 2016 and 2020, there was no significant decline in the share of white Americans who identify as evangelical Christians. Instead, the report found the opposite: During Donald Trump’s presidency, the number of white Americans who started identifying as evangelical actually grew.
Conservative Christians celebrated the news. For years, stories have appeared in media outlets about how many of the more theologically moderate denominations like Episcopalians and the United Church of Christ have suffered staggering losses in membership. The fact that denominations that allowed women pastors were declining while evangelical churches that took more conservative positions on views of gender and sexuality were holding their own was evidence for evangelicals that conservative religion has staying power. Because these moderate traditions were so much like the culture around them, the story went, it was easy for their members to fall away from church attendance. Evangelicals prided themselves on their distinctiveness from mainstream society, which insulated them from forces like secularization.
And,
What is drawing more people to embrace the evangelical label on surveys is more likely that evangelicalism has been bound to the Republican Party. Instead of theological affinity for Jesus Christ, millions of Americans are being drawn to the evangelical label because of its association with the G.O.P.
This is happening in two different ways. The first is that many Americans who have begun to embrace the evangelical identity are people who hardly ever attend religious services. For instance, in 2008, just 16 percent of all self-identified evangelicals reported their church attendance as never or seldom. But in 2020, that number jumped to 27 percent. In 2008, about a third of evangelicals who never attended church said they were politically conservative. By 2019, that had risen to about 50 percent.
In the past Evangelicals have tended to take the stories in the Bible as stated fact, for example, that God made world in six days. In other words, they believe in magic.
Republicans tend to believe Trump’s lies that when Biden won the 2020 election, it was stolen. In other words, they believe in magic. It’s no wonder that Evangelical has become synonymous with Republican. They both believe in magic.
They believed Trump when he said that only he could fix what was wrong with America. He didn’t fix anything, but, in fact, made us much worse off with his ridiculous, stupid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the pandemic would just go away — like magic.
When we see a great magician, such as David Copperfied, we expect to be fooled, we are delighted to see an amazing trick such as sawing Jennifer Lopez into six separate sections or making the Statue of Liberty disappear and wonder “how did he do that?” We know it wasn’t magic, that Jennifer Lopez is not in six pieces and that the Statue of Liberty is still there, but we are amazed at Copperfield’s brilliant ingenuity. He doesn’t even call himself a magician; he calls himself an illusionist. Even Copperfield doesn’t believe in magic. He knows his tricks are illusions.
But Republicans and Evangelists, out of desperation, believe in magic. That someone, maybe Harry Potter, will wave a wand and bring back their white supremacy, will bring back their slaves and will reincarnate Ronald Regan to be president again. They don’t believe in science, evolution, equality or reality — too painful.
