{"id":4537,"date":"2017-03-22T01:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2017-03-22T12:26:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T16:26:57","slug":"evangelical-christians-the-ten-commandments-and-2016-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2017\/03\/evangelical-christians-the-ten-commandments-and-2016-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Christians, the Ten Commandments, and 2016 Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"
Introduction<\/span>:<\/strong>\u00a0 The results<\/a> of the recently completed presidential election in the U.S. showed that it was an extremely close election won by Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton.\u00a0 Trump won the electoral vote by 306 versus 232, but Clinton won the popular vote 48.5% versus 46.4%, or 65,853,516 votes versus 62,984,825.\u00a0 In the exit polls<\/a>, there was one statistic that stood out:\u00a0 The white evangelical Christians voted 81% vs 16% in favor of Trump over Clinton. [1]\u00a0 Ideally we would like to know the exit polls for various sub-segments of the evangelical Christians, but there were no sub-segment breakdowns.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 we do know from pre-election polls<\/a> that evangelicals of color (about 2 out 5 of all evangelicals) have just the opposite preference, i.e., significantly more in favor of Clinton.<\/p>\n Since Christians should believe in the Bible, including the Ten Commandments<\/a>, assessing Trump and Clinton as a person (expressed position and behavior) relative to the Ten Commandments should give some guidance on how Christians should vote.\u00a0 This essay discusses such an assessment and addresses the question whether white evangelical Christians should have voted so overwhelmingly for Trump. Summary of Assessment of Trump and Clinton With Respect to the Ten Commandments<\/span>:\u00a0 <\/strong>To provide an assessment with respect to each of the Ten Commandments, we take into consideration Trump’s or Clinton’s expressed opinion and his\/her behavior (as elaborated in the next section).\u00a0\u00a0For certain Commandments, in particular, for Commandments 1, 2, 3, and 5, there is “not enough information” (NEI) to make a decision on whether Trump or Clinton follows that Commandment more closely.\u00a0 In those situations, in the table below we designate in the second column (Assessment of Trump) and the third column (Assessment of Clinton) with NEI, and in the fourth column (Who Follows the Commandment More Closely) with ND (no decision).\u00a0 Our assessment with respect to Trump and Clinton is summarized in the table below.<\/p>\n
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