In 2016, 80% of white Evangelical voters voted for President Donald Trump in the United States presidential election. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to explain why.
"When they got Donald, in many ways it was the hope for many Evangelicals they would change Trump - but Trump has really changed them. They never thought he was really that bad for the nation, but some are seeing that he's also very bad for Christianity," Monroe said.
Complementarianism is a theological view, held by some Evangelicals, stating that women don't have the same level as authority or divine rights as men, Price said. This view contributed to how Evangelicals voted in the 2016 election, he added.
"Within the movement of Evangelicalism, which has a number of different Christian denominations within them, there's still a strand of complementarianism. If one is a complementarian, than you can't even conceive of having a woman president," he said. "So in that sense, there's a disconnect in terms of a gender dynamic within the social culture of Evangelicalism, vis-à-vis their complementarianism," Price said.
Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a Visiting Researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology. Price is Professor of Worship, Church & Culture and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.