He grew up on a farm in Indiana, the son of a factory worker and eldest of five children. He studied at Liberty, a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, and recalls wearing a T-shirt expressing opposition to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Two decades later, Justin Douglas is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.
He is among around 30 Christian white clergy – pastors, seminary students and other faith leaders – known to be potential Democratic candidates in next year’s midterm elections, including a dozen who are already in the race. While stressing the separation of church and state, many say that on a personal level their faith is calling them into the political arena.
The trend marks a break from a traditional racial divide. Whereas Black pastors who run for office are typically Democrats, their white counterparts are usually Republicans, reflecting the strength of the religious right and the party’s dominance among evangelical voters.
Yeah, for sure but religion plays a stupid amount of a role in the US compared to other normal western countries. Just look at the Christian Heritage Party of Canada with their grand total of zero seats. Hell, the Conservative Party of Canada doesn’t even dip into religion very often and they’re also unpopular.
Your country’s broken, mate
Calling one of the two major parties in Canada, which almost won the last election if not for its leader fucking up to an insane degree, “unpopular” is certainly a take. Also the current senior part of Germany’s ruling coalition is the Christian Democratic Party so… yeah. More broadly, though, you have to realize that Protestantism in US rightwing politics is just a stand-in for white nationalism, while in more anti-clerical Western countries nationalism is the dominant religion with traditional religion mostly a distant second. The GOP isn’t a cult because it’s religious (they still have a hefty atheist and otherwise non-Protestant support base); it’s a cult because rightwing politics are inherently culty, far-right politics even more so. It’s not like cannibalizing fellow workers while the owner class bleeds you dry becomes more rational when you’re doing it for the German nation instead of Jesus.