Will Christianity be deciding factor between Trump and Biden?

Joe Biden says he's a practicing Catholic, attending Mass and such.

Of course, he's deliberately and ostentatiously thumbed his nose for years at multiple teachings of the church, including on abortion.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, makes no flamboyant claims to church membership.

But what he did as president was simply take multiple steps to protect the conscience rights of Americans, for instance through his protections for physicians who don't want to be ordered to participate in the nation's lucrative abortion industry. And he appointed Supreme Court justices who were key to the collapse of the flawed Roe v. Wade abortion "rights" claims.

Voters have noticed the difference.

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A commentary published at Real Clear Wire by Salena Zito and Brad Todd boldly announced that "Joe Biden's problem is in the pews."

That would be his re-election campaign "problem," where is he trailing Trump in most of the swing states, and often by significant percentages.

The commentary explains, "Polling shows the mass-attending Catholic president trails Donald Trump by 10 points among those who attend religious services a few times a year or more. The score is reversed with voters who report they seldom or never attend church, with Biden leading by 10."

The authors continued, "It's the starkest divide in the electorate – and one that political journalists rarely mention, perhaps because, as a profession, journalists are more removed from religion than the average American."

The commentary noted Trump's significant advantage with white evangelical Protestants is already understood, but "he also leads Biden by healthy margins among less politically conservative Christians."

The numbers are from Marquette Law School’s national poll of registered voters, which confirmed Biden trailing Trump by 18 points among "other members of his own Catholic faith," and trailing by 16 points among "adherents of mainline Protestant denominations, which would include groups like Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians."

Reverse that standard, however, and "Biden holds a commanding 33-point advantage" among "non-Christian voters."

"The irony of this schism proves a dynamic that is larger than these two men. Biden would tell you his Catholicism is integral to his own self-identity. Trump, meanwhile, was a high-living playboy who said he’d never asked God for forgiveness for anything, situating himself well outside the theology and lifestyle of most Christians," the commentary said.

Trump earlier gained the support of faithful in a scenario the writers identified as a "King Cyrus" circumstance, which cited the Old Testament king, a Persian, who was not a follower of faith, but yet did positive things for members, including delivering Jews back to Israel.

"These voters, mostly Catholic or evangelical Protestants, adopted Trump’s candidacy pragmatically, seeing in him a warrior who would battle their common political enemies."

They found, "Politics is about coalitions, and the arrangement between Trump and conservative Christians indisputably has delivered benefits for both sides."

But, they warned, "The religious divide that matters going forward in American politics is not about Trump, and it’s not about white evangelical Protestants. The question is whether Democrats can keep a place in their party for other religiously devout voters. Democrats’ best electoral group – the so-called 'nones,' those with no religious affiliation – is growing, particularly among younger generations. But as the party becomes dominated by those who actively reject religion, its platform becomes less appealing to those who don’t, as many Jewish Democrats are discovering as left-wing radicals show an ugly antisemitic side and opposition to America’s alliance with the Jewish state of Israel."

The consequences should that trend continue are apparent, they explained: "If Democrats drive out the religious voters in their ranks, they will struggle to compete in a geographic footprint large enough to enable them to control Congress or win in the Electoral College."

Already, such changes have made Florida not a swing state but "a Republican fortress," and Democrats are fretting over the same moves in Nevada and Arizona.

"Pew Research data shows Hispanics are about half as likely as whites to say they do not believe in God, while African Americans, long the bulwark of the Democratic Party, are five times less likely than whites to express disbelief. Blacks also attend church more than whites do, report reading the Bible more than whites, and say they pray more than whites, according to respected church researchers at Barna Group," the commentary pointed out.

In short, they writers explain, the Democrats' "hostility" to traditional religious values may make it hard "to keep enough blacks, Hispanics, and Jews on board to win enough states to govern."

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