Letters to the Editor: Evangelicals had options in 2016. Why’d they pick Trump?

To the editor: The letter writer who tried to explain why many evangelicals support President Trump was correct when he said, “Progressives can’t understand why.” But his explanation, “They don’t like the alternative,” is specious.

Evangelicals had decent, experienced Republicans like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich to choose from but chose, instead, the least Christian among the options.

Evangelicals need to stop making excuses like “we don’t judge” and face the truth about the man they put in the White House.

Linda Shahinian, Culver City

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To the editor: As a practicing evangelical Christian who is not a member of any political party, I observe two factors that bear on Trump’s relationship with evangelicalism.

One, there are two types of evangelicals. First are those who identify with the Evangelicalism and the Republican Party. These are concerned citizens highly driven by political action as a result of liberal policies that lead to the weakening of society’s moral values.

The second type are evangelicals who do not specifically identify with the Republican Party. Before deciding political issues, they ask, “What do the holy scriptures truly teach about this issue?” Then, they make their political decisions.

Two, as someone with friends who belong to the two grounds of evangelicals, I can say both are repulsed by Trump’s behavior.

Wesley Stalnaker, Santa Clarita

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To the editor: Contrary to what one letter writer asserted, progressives do not mock people of faith, nor do they try to disqualify people from the judiciary based on their religious beliefs. This narrative is pushed by the conservative media to inflame people of faith and get them to vote for men who could not care less about them.

The “religious freedom” that today’s Christian nationalists espouse is really religious privilege. They want the right to discriminate against and have power over those they disagree with, and they want government funding for their particular brand of Christianity.

Thomas Graves, Newbury Park