Lies, Damned Lies, And...

Republicans scrambling as the number of reliable evangelical voters becomes increasingly smaller: report https://t.co/wNTVBQxk94

— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 4, 2021

For decades the GOP has been able to count on evangelical Christians to turn out on election day due to their opposition to hot button cultural issues like abortion and gay rights but with, church attendance collapsing, Republicans are faced with either ginning up new controversies to keep Christians who are tuning out in their camp.

According to NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, "For the first time, a majority of Americans are not church members, Gallup found this spring. Over the last decade, the share of Republicans who are church members fell from 75% to 65%, according to Gallup. That's a solid majority but also a sizable fall. The key bloc of white evangelicals is also shrinking as a share of the population, while the share of religiously unaffiliated Americans grows."

So, have these people left the country?  Left the planet?  Shredded their voter registrations?  Gone off the grid?

Honestly, what's the connection between "evangelicals" and church attendance that makes them reliable GOP voters?  Souls to the polls?  The GOP in Texas is determined to end that (as is the GOP in many states).  If the preacher isn't telling them every Sunday to fear the libs, they will stop fearing the libs?  Is it the Facebook thing, but now the preacher doesn't have their attention even for 1 hour a week?

I mean, I'm all for "GOP in disarray" stories, but this one doesn't make sense to me.  People who quit going to church quit voting?  Is that a thing?  People who don't go to church don't vote GOP?  People who don't go to church are no longer "evangelicals" and so no longer GOP voters?

Yeah, I really don't think it works like that.