The Week in Quotes (April 29 – May 5)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Nancy Wadsworth, an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver, on the racial demons that help explain evangelical support for Trump.

“Evangelicals’ tenacious affection for Donald Trump is not a bug driven by expediency. Instead, it reflects defining features of American evangelicalism that become clearer when we examine the historical record. Doing so reveals that when white conservative evangelicals feel threatened by cultural change, the old demons of racism and misogyny, which lurk at the heart of the American evangelical tradition, return with a vengeance. Trump is just another chapter in that story.”

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Paige Patterson, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, on a 2000 tape purporting to quote him saying that abused women should focus on praying and “be submissive in every way that you can” and not seek divorce.

“It depends on the level of abuse, to some degree. I have never in my ministry counseled anyone to seek a divorce and that’s always wrong counsel.”

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Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ reply to President Trump when asked if he wanted to be science adviser.

“That’s not a good use of my time.”

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Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe, commenting on findings that the rise of Christian evangelicals as a right-wing political force and the increasing number of people who decline to affiliate with any faith tradition are connected.

“Religious attachments fade in the face of visible Christian right policy victories. There is clear evidence that people – probably those without strong relationships with houses of worship – use the Christian right as a proxy for religion as a whole, and discontinue their religious identities as a result.”

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Prominent evangelical pastor Tim Keller on evangelicals’ support of the Trump presidency.

“‘Evangelical’ used to denote people who claimed the high moral ground; now, in popular usage, the word is nearly synonymous with ‘hypocrite.'”