The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies will present a free President’s Day lecture, “Religion and the 2016 Election: Historical Context and Unusual Alliances,” with professor and author Randall Balmer on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Religion played an unusual and unexpected role in the 2016 election, especially among Christian voters who threw their support behind a thrice-married billionaire casino owner who demonstrated only a passing familiarity with the rudiments of Christian theology, says Balmer. This lecture explores the historical reasons and contemporary dynamics behind the unlikely alliance between Christian groups and Donald Trump.
Balmer is the John Phillips Professor of Religion, chair of the religion department, and director of the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. His commentaries appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Des Moines Register, and other newspapers across the country. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America,” now in its fifth edition, and “Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter.”
