Jason Isbell Slams Christian Trump Voters: ‘God Is Gone From Those People’

In a no-holds-barred new interview, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell slams conservative Christians who support President Donald Trump, openly questioning their adherence to their own stated beliefs.

"The Trump presidency has convinced me that we are living in a post-Christian America," the Grammy-winning musician tells Rolling Stone Country. "I could see how a lot of conservative right-wing Christian Americans would vote for someone like Mitt Romney, who seems like a stand-up guy. But Trump is obviously not a good Christian person. I think the fact that so many people voted for him means that there aren't that many good Christian people left in rural America. God is gone from those people."

Isbell grew up in Alabama in a strict environment, attending both Pentecostal churches and the Church of Christ, where no instruments were permitted to accompany the music. The singer delves into socio-political concerns on his new album, The Nashville Sound. "White Man's World" expresses his fears over the inequality his 2-year-old daughter will face in the culture as she grows up, while "Cumberland Gap" captures the hardscrabble lifestyle of workers in rural coal country.

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In a recent appearance on The Daily Show, Isbell said Trump's election made him partially lose faith in the inherent goodness of people from the South. Isbell and his wife, singer-songwriter Amanda Shires, now live in Nashville. Despite that comment and the overwhelmingly conservative slant of country music's core audience, he says he hasn't run into very much friction either personally or professionally.

"I'm kind of surprised how little trouble we've run into. When some people first heard this record, they said that I was gonna alienate half my audience. Where do they get those statistics?" he wonders to RSC. "Kendrick Lamar probably does not have a whole lot of conservative listeners. I might alienate six or seven percent of my audience. But I gain a whole lot more to make up for it."

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