A photo from The New York Times struck me. It is of a group of white women at a Trump rally who, as the Times put it, “(were) impeccably coiffed women in brightly colored pantsuits, as if they had wandered in from an Easter gala.” They call themselves the “North Carolina Girls” and volunteer at Trump rallies all over the country. They are members of an evangelical church in the small town of Spindale (population 4,238). The church, Word of Faith Fellowship, is infamous for their (alleged) harsh punishments of sinners in the church (including children).
Now these ladies shouldn’t surprise anyone. Donald Trump won 84% of the white evangelical vote in 2020. The power of white evangelicals (especially Southern Baptists) in U.S. elections cannot be understated. But if you flip the script another vision emerges. It turns out 16% of white evangelicals didn’t vote for Trump. Who are they?
This week we are re-airing a show I produced on Christian Nationalism. And in it we interviewed Beth Allison Barr. She’s a born-again Christian who lives in Waco, Texas. A Southern Baptist who was raised evangelical, married a pastor and had two children. And if that makes you think you know something about Beth Allison Barr, you should also know she’s a feminist professor of medieval history at Baylor University.
Beth Allison Barr is part of the 16%. She is evangelical, female, and active in her church, just like the North Carolina Girls. However, she doesn’t have the same politics or theology with these women. So, what does that mean, for example, to a denomination as large as the South Baptist Convention? It is - to put it simply - complicated.
– Charles