Christmas in the USA: How Religion Affects American Politics - ForumDaily
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Christmas in the USA: How Religion Affects American Politics

Christmas is celebrated in the USA on December 25, the main holiday for millions of Christians who celebrate it, as a rule, with their families. The states are a fairly religious country and the question of faith of the presidential candidate is important for them and as voters. Writes about it Gazeta.Ru.

The support of US President Donald Trump is extremely high in Christian circles, though the number of those who are ready to vote for an atheist president is also growing.

Religion still plays a large role in American political life: according to a 2016 survey, 73,7% of Americans consider themselves Christians. Presidents take the oath of worship in the Bible, prayer is held in Congress before the meeting, and monuments depicting the Ten Commandments can be seen next to public buildings.

However, despite the fact that the majority of presidential candidates publicly speak of their faith, the religious beliefs of the candidate are diminishing. According to a recent Gallup poll, 60% of Americans said they could vote for an atheist president.

This is 4% more than in 2012, as well as a tremendous leap - 40% - compared with the figure of 1958. Then the Americans were asked this question for the first time.

The number of those who are still not ready to vote for an atheist president has also decreased from 43% in 2012 to 40% in 2019.

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Moreover, if we talk about the religion of voters, then, as a rule, supporters of republicans than democrats are traditionally considered more religious. According to another Gallup poll, 92% of GOP supporters who consider themselves religious endorse Trump’s presidency. For comparison: among those republicans who are not considered so religious, the activity of the head of the country is approved by 87%.

Religious voters see the American leader as a defender of traditional Christian values. As American religious professor John Farina noted, despite the fact that the “warlike style” pushed many traditional Republican supporters away from Trump, at the same time he helped “arouse religious feelings and attract the majority of Christian believers to the elections.”

According to the expert, religious voters liked Trump's attacks against the Washington political elite. The believing electorate fully agreed with the accusations that the then presidential candidate sent to Washington: the authorities are sinful, they are rotten in the pursuit of money and power and do not think about the interests of ordinary people.

At the same time, Trump himself often mentioned his religious education during his election campaign.

“I was born and raised in a house saturated with church spirit. Father and mother told me: to whom much has been given, they will ask much from that, ”he said. “I swore on the same Bible that our mother read to us when we were little, and this faith lives in my heart.”

It is known that Trump was brought up in the traditions of the Presbyterian church and was a parishioner of a temple in Manhattan. There he met with pastor Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, on the search for God.

However, as Farina noted, “Trump did not go out of his way to speak of himself as a Christian.”

“He did not quote passages from the Bible and did not say that Jesus Christ is his role model,” said Farina.

Trump became the first American president in many years who, in 2017, congratulating his compatriots on the holiday, said the words “Merry Christmas!”.

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Despite the fact that this expression often sounds in the family circle of believing Christians, as well as in the "Christmas movie", politicians prefer not to use it publicly. In order not to offend people of a different faith, they prefer the neutral: "Happy Holidays."

Presidents, Faith, and Prayer Breakfasts

Religion played a large role in the lives of many American presidents, in particular, Democrat Jimmy Carter, who was a very devout person. In his memoirs, he says that he tried to attend church without a pump with his family, so as not to attract attention. During his trips abroad, he often touched on religious issues in communication with world leaders, including even those whose countries were under Soviet influence.

So, the Polish leader Edward Gierek in 1977 asked Carter how he came to religious faith. The ex-head of the United States wrote in his memoirs that Gerek himself was seriously interested in this and even said that his mother had recently visited the Vatican.

Ronald Reagan, who replaced Carter as president, was no less religious. As those who knew Reagan recall, partly his negative attitude towards the USSR was connected with the atheism of Soviet society. It is worth noting that Reagan called the "evil empire" of the USSR, speaking to the National Association of Evangelicals of the United States.

The improvement of religion in the USSR under the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev significantly contributed to the dialogue between the two countries, recalled the American writer and public figure Susan Massey, who repeatedly advised Reagan on Russian topics.

In turn, US President George W. Bush admitted that he could better establish a dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after he was shocked by his story about the family cross that survived after the fire. It was then that Bush, who himself came to religion as an adult, said: "I could look into his soul."

Religious events help establish political dialogue. This happens during the so-called "prayer breakfasts", which are held in the White House every year with the participation of the US President.

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For the first time, Dwight Eisenhower visited him in 1952, marking the beginning of his presidential visit to the “prayer breakfast”. The late evangelical priest Billy Graham, who later was the confessor of many presidents, encouraged him to take this step. Speaking at breakfast, which was attended by more than 400 spiritual and secular figures of the United States, Eisenhower said that the government "is based on deep religious faith."

According to the American political scientist Areg Galstyan, “prayer breakfasts” are “a tribute to Protestantism and Protestant ethics”.

“The event has a high status, as it is attended by the president, who invites high-ranking guests for breakfast. They can chat informally on any topic. But this, of course, is not an event where important political decisions are made. Rather, it’s a “tick” for the Protestant lobby, ”says the expert.

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