'Notional' Christians are the driving force behind Trump victory, Barna poll finds

A new study conducted by The Barna Group has revealed that President-elect Donald Trump's victory can be attributed to 'notional' Christians instead of evangelicals.

The study was conducted in two waves from Nov. 4 to Nov. 6 and Nov. 9 to Nov. 16, with a total of 1,281 adult respondents that included 1,134 registered voters, according to The Christian Post.

George Barna, the founder of the group, defines notional Christians as people who consider themselves Christians but have not made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today." It is said to be the largest of the faith segments which includes evangelicals, non-evangelical born-again Christians, non-Christians, and skeptics.

Since 1996, Democratic candidates have gained an average of 58 percent of the votes from 'notional' Christians. But this election year, Trump won 49 percent while Hillary Clinton only took 47 percent.

According to the report, evangelicals, representing seven percent of total voters, were one of the most ardent supporters of Trump. The president-elect got 79 percent of the evangelical vote, which is slightly lower than the support for Mitt Romney who garnered 81 percent when he ran in 2012.

The figures for Trump suggest that the evangelical support for a Republican candidate is at its lowest level since 1996 when Bob Dole garnered only 74 percent of their votes and lost to Bill Clinton.

"One of those misdiagnoses was their assertion that the election featured a record-breaking turnout among evangelicals. While their turnout was strong, it was not record-breaking," said Barna in a statement.

"In fact, evangelicals' concern over the character of both candidates kept many of them from choosing a candidate until very late in the process, and a higher-than-usual proportion of them voted for the more liberal candidate," he continued.

Barna noted that Christians were more likely to support Trump than Clinton while non-Christians were more likely to support the former first lady. However, the results have shown that Trump gained 10 percentage points over Clinton among atheists and agnostics.

Barna noted that the role of faith in the election was significant, but he pointed out that the skeptic population is increasing while the born-again community is shrinking.

"That is a trend that will be a major challenge for conservative and Republican candidates in the future," Barna said.