Trump, religion and the power of asking ‘Why?’

This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

Unless you’re an avid reader of the Deseret News’ politics content, you might not realize that we regularly fund our own polling in order to field survey questions that editors and reporters help design.

Last week, we released our most fascinating survey yet, a look at whether voters think President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and prominent Republican Mitt Romney are people of faith and, if they do, why that is.

As the survey was being designed, I had a chance to talk to the politics editor about my experience covering Trump during his time in office. I explained my hunch that he’s seen by many of his supporters as religious not because of his private behaviors but because of his public support for religious freedom protections. The conversation inspired some of the response options that survey participants were offered.

When we got the results back, I was excited to see that my hunch had proven true.

Among the 64% of Republicans in the survey who said that Trump is a person of faith, few said it was because he’s actively involved in a religious community. The most common response was that it’s because he “defends people of faith in the U.S.”

In other words, these voters care more about his eagerness to appoint Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion or to design policies that protect faith groups that oppose same-sex marriage than his church attendance habits, as Deseret News reporter Samuel Benson noted in his own newsletter essay on the survey.

Among Democrats, almost the opposite is true when it comes to their views on Biden. While 69% of Democrats view the president as a person of faith, just 35% of them believe he defends people of faith in the U.S. But most do believe he has “a strong moral compass.”

The survey results capture the complexity of the relationship between religion and politics and illustrate the power of asking “why.”

Amid Trump’s rise to political prominence, I often found myself annoyed with articles and columns that criticized conservative people of faith for apparently failing to recognize that Trump somewhat regularly says incorrect things about the Bible. I was annoyed that the authors of these pieces didn’t ask the people of faith in question to explain their support and then write more about Trump’s faith-related policy moves.

I hope the new survey results are eye-opening and shape how reporters approach the 2024 election. The data certainly has the wheels in my head turning.

Fresh off the press

C.J. Stroud shared his favorite Bible verse after the Texans’ big win

How a Supreme Court case out of Idaho could reshape abortion law nationwide

Shia LaBeouf portrayed a Catholic in a movie — and then became one in real life

Kyrie Irving speaks out on ‘I’m a Jew and I’m proud’ signs at Jazz game

Utah Jazz issue statement on sign policy after rabbis raise concerns about treatment by arena staff

Term of the week: RCIA

RCIA, which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, is the process through which adults join the Catholic Church. It involves regular meetings with Catholic leaders, as well as prayer and reflection.

“Participants in the RCIA are known as catechumens. They undergo a process of conversion as they study the Gospel, profess faith in Jesus and the Catholic Church, and receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist,” explains a group of Catholic churches in Texas.

This process can take several years, although it doesn’t have to. The time involved depends on what the person in question is feeling and hearing from God, the RCIA guide says.

People who complete RCIA are typically baptized, confirmed and allowed to take communion for the first time during the Easter Vigil Mass on the day before Easter.

What I’m reading ...

It’s a new year, but the prevailing narrative about youth and religion remains the same: Young people aren’t interested in organized religion. That’s why I loved Religion News Service’s story about some of the people who are missing from that now-familiar refrain: the young Catholics becoming nuns and priests.

During her recent reporting trip to Hawaii, The Associated Press’ Deepa Bharath met with several families who work together to protect and harvest salt from the Hanapepe salt patch on the west side of Kauai. The salt that’s produced — which is never sold and, instead, given away or traded — is used for a variety of purposes, from cooking to prayer.

Need a boost of positivity in your life? I recommend The Washington Post’s list of 23 happy memories from 2023.

And for an extra dose of joy, read Simran Jeet Singh’s newsletter about life’s many surprises.

Odds and ends

Natural wonders like the total solar eclipse happening in April are more than an opportunity to admire the world around you; they also create opportunities for unique science experiments. During the eclipse, researchers across the country will collect all sorts of data, including recordings of animal noises and photos of the sun’s atmosphere, according to Scientific American.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil wearing a shirt to honor Taylor Swift? Well, it recently got another makeover in honor of a soccer star who died one year ago. “Christ the Redeemer had a projection of a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s name and number 10 and a message from Pope Francis. Pelé was a devout Catholic,” The Associated Press reported.