Evangelicalism and American Politics in the post-Trump Era

Religion has played a broadly acknowledged yet contested role in influencing and shaping the history of the United States at many levels including, mainly, the sociopolitical one. Hence, and despite the prevalence of the secularization theory globally, the American model of faith-based politics has succeeded in reinvigorating religion as a prominent influential force in politics, specifically, party politics. Th rise of the Christian Right movement in the late 1970s and the political mobilization of evangelical Protestants behind the socially conservative agenda of the Republican Party lead scholars to “rethinking” the relevance of religion in modern American politics. Consequently, evangelical Protestant were brought under heavy scrutiny and criticism as they gradual grew into a strong republican constituency. Evangelicalism, thus, emerged as an intriguing phenomenon where theology and politics are so closely intertwined that they can hardly ever be disentangled. Furthermore, the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and the considerable support he received from leading evangelical figures and evangelical voters attracted media attention and urged scholars to investigate the underpinnings of what has been perceived as a major dilemma. This dilemma caused a rift within evangelicalism and resulted in reviving the perennial questions of who can identify as an evangelical and where should the boundaries of this group be set? Therefore, my paper is set to discuss evangelical politics and the future of evangelicalism in the post Trump era in light of the attitudes and views of young evangelicals which will be explored by the researcher as part of a PhD project. Th findings generated are expected to contribute to a better understanding of evangelicalism as a perceived by evangelicals themselves and provide insights into the future of the evangelical movements and its ties to politics.