'They’re more white than Christian': Black evangelicals reveal how Trumpism exposed hypocrisy of white evangelicals

Only a generation ago, American evangelical Christianity was seen as politically neutral.

The first modern president to identify as evangelical was Democrat Jimmy Carter, and evangelicals were known to support many progressive ideas along with their fervent opposition to abortion rights.

Evangelicals became a key constituency of the Republican party under Ronald Reagan and have remained there since—even including under the presidency of Donald Trump, who evangelical leaders have proclaimed a "baby Christian" despite the fact that he never goes to church and has a number of well-documented moral failings.

A new deep-read in the New Yorker explores the schism Trump is causing within the evangelical community. People of color are the fastest growing group of evangelicals, and many see support of Trump as blatant hypocrisy.

"Under Trump’s Presidency right-wing political rhetoric has become more openly racist and xenophobic," the story reads. "In evangelical circles, hostility toward people of color is often couched in nostalgia for the simpler days of nineteen-fifties America."

The New Yorker piece reveals the policy goals of evangelicals of color and how the battle inside the church is playing out. Among the leaders quoted is leftwing evangelical activist Lisa Sharon Harper, who says that the battle is just begining.

“They’re more white than Christian,” she says.

Read the full feature here.