“We asked for the votes of evangelicals and the Clinton campaign didn’t,” Michael Wear, who also led evangelical outreach for the faith-based office at the Obama White House, told me. “It’s a campaign, you ask for people’s votes. And Hillary asked for just about every vote except this group of voters.”White evangelicals make up about a quarter of the electorate, and exit polls showed they voted for President-elect Donald Trump over Clinton 81-16 percent. That’s certainly not the only explanation for Trump’s political upset, but it’s one piece. Obama won 26 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2008 and 20 percent in 2012.

“Evangelicals feel embattled in this country,” Wear said. “Donald Trump’s case to evangelical voters was that he was the only one who cared about them, the only one who could save them. After we have a conversation about whether evangelicals should be looking to a politician to be saved—Hillary Clinton’s pretty historic silence toward white evangelicals, the campaign’s ignoring these voters, worked to affirm the isolation they were feeling, to affirm the case Trump was making … [her] campaign wasn’t even interested in being in the argument. That hurts.”

The Clinton campaign press office never once responded to several inquiries from WORLD reporters throughout the election cycle. Campaign officials didn’t bother because they didn’t think they needed white evangelicals. What was determinative in the election, in Wear’s analysis, was “Democrats’ assumptions about the voters they needed and the voters they didn’t need—and assumptions about what the electorate would look like.”

On that topic, Wear thinks Clinton’s position on repealing the Hyde Amendment, which alienated many evangelicals, did not work out strategically in turning out white women voters.

“Maybe pouring tens of millions of campaign dollars into how pro-choice your candidate is, maybe that’s not as motivating as some groups want to tell us it is,” Wear said.

Will last night’s results shift the Democratic Party on social issues like abortion?

“Historically midterm elections have been more difficult for Democrats, and there’s a higher percentage of older white voters,” Wear said. “So there are some very important Senate races coming up in 2018 and a position on Hyde like that will be tough. That being said, the formal opportunity to revisit the Democratic platform isn’t for four years. … I really doubt there’s going to be a movement to change.”

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

“It’s law,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. “It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.”

Trump has been called the “most LGBT-friendly Republican running for president” by various sources, and it appears from the “60 Minutes” interview that he may also be the most LGBT-friendly Republican president as well.

Although during the primaries Trump said, if elected, he would consider appointing Supreme Court justices who would overrule the Obergefell decision which legalized gay marriage and even stated that the gay marriage decision should have been left up to the states, he has since tempered his stance.

“These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. And I’m – I’m fine with that,” he said.

The official Republican party position opposes same-sex marriage and condemns the Obergefell decision, also calling for legislation to protect the religious freedom of business owners who object to serving gay people.

On the issue of abortion, however, Trump said he remains committed to appointing pro-life Supreme Court justices who may overturn Roe v. Wade.

“If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states,” he said.

Source : Christian Headlines

The Charlotte Observer reports that, although his mind is still clear, the elder Graham is feeling the strain of his nearly 98 years.

When asked how his father is doing, the younger Graham replied, “Not great. He’s 98.”

“It’s a party every Sunday when I go see him because he’s made it through another week,” the younger Graham added. “At 98, you count the days and weeks. I don’t think we’ll have any more big parties. Those days are over with.”

Although the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina will offer complimentary cake and a birthday banner guests can sign in honor of Graham, the family will not be hosting a large party as they did three years ago for Graham’s 95th birthday.

Three years ago, over 800 people gathered in Asheville to honor Graham. Many prominent Republicans attended the event, including Donald Trump and his wife Melania, Sarah Palin and her husband Todd, and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory.

Graham will not be posing for any pictures with politicians or celebrities this year.

Although the Grahams have historically supported Republican presidential candidates, this year Franklin Graham distanced himself from the Republican party,  although throughout his Decision America Tour he urged Christians to vote for a candidate who will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices.

Photo courtesy: flickr.com