An Open Religious Market

Source: wikicommons

Religions with which Donald Trump Is Not So Comfortable

Nothing has surprised American political experts more than the rise of Donald Trump’s candidacy for president of the United States over the past six months. From his criticism of Senator John McCain for becoming a prisoner of war to his deprecating comments about women, a disabled journalist, and his competitors, nothing has gotten more attention than Trump’s proposal to forbid Muslims to enter the country, at least for a time.

In fact, Trump’s comments about religious matters have not been confined to expressing his wariness concerning Muslims. Trump has also announced his uncertainty about Seventh Day Adventists, which just happens to be the group that his competitor, Ben Carson, is affiliated with. In Iowa he recently highlighted Senator Ted Cruz’s Cuban heritage, noting that “not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba.”

Religions with which Donald Trump Is Comfortable

Trump has clearly indicated what religions he regards as unproblematic. Touting his Presbyterianism, he describes it as “down the middle of the road.” The religions that are down the middle of the road are, presumably, in addition to Presbyterianism, other traditional Protestant groups such as Methodists and Congregationalists. Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is a call for a return to a pre-1970s America, at least -- that is, to a period when middle class Americans’ economic prospects were still rising. Or, perhaps, it is a call for a return to a pre-1960s America, before the disillusioning experience of the war in Vietnam. These were times when America was less ethnically and culturally diverse and when America was less religiously diverse.

In the subsequent decades it has been precisely such middle of the road Protestant groups that have been in decline, with slowly but steadily decreasing numbers of adherents. What has led to that decline and to America’s increased religious diversity? Certainly, one factor has been the nation’s less restrictive immigration policies during this time period, which has brought hundreds of thousands of people whose religions are not down the middle of the road, but an additional consideration is a long-standing feature of America’s constitutional system.

An Open Religious Market

America is renowned for its comparatively open economy. The comparative openness of America’s religious market has parallel effects. Arguably, its relatively open religious market has made the United States the most religiously dynamic nation in human history. Unlike the nations of northern Europe, where secularization seems to have emerged as a major trend, the United States has no state-supported religions. New religions (whether Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Seventh Day Adventism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints) have been arising regularly in America for the past two hundred years. Compared to that in other developed nations, the competition among religious groups in America for followers is keen.

Open markets in any domain invite evolutionary analogies. New variants arise and either adapt to the demands of the current environment or face decline and extinction as the result of competition and selection pressures. Much of the evidence from the past few decades indicates that Trump’s middle of the road religions are less well-adapted to the current cultural conditions in the United States than they were four or five decades ago.