In a city locked down as an armed encampment, Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated without the disruptions many feared. There were prayers and familiar political calls for healing and unity.

References to the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol came early and often.

Regarding that historic day, much remains to be investigated but Wall Street Journal veteran Gerald Seib offered a brisk summary: "Mr. Trump sent a crowd of his supporters to the Capitol to stop the constitutional transfer of power to his elected successor. That crowd turned into a mob that ransacked the seat of American democracy and tried to hunt down its elected leaders." Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell stated much the same Tuesday.

Seib added that in the melee, "mainstream Trump supporters were overshadowed by those swinging fire extinguishers at cops and a man wearing a 'Camp Aushwitz' sweatshirt." That is, the fringe dwellers, unhinged devotees and insurrection plotters emerged from a larger throng that obeyed the president's summons to attend his "Stop the Steal" rally and march upon the Capitol. 

The same with a certain number of evangelical-style Protestants at the "Steal" protest and explicitly religious "Jericho" march. They were swept into the criminal rampage alongside violent extremists who trashed the symbolic citadel, spewed F-bombs, assaulted police (battering one to death) and chanted threats to assassinate America's #1 evangelical office-holder, Vice President Mike Pence. 

Several top religion reporters publicized this unnerving aspect of the fray. In response, GetReligion editor Terry Mattingly questioned whether the rioting rabble truly represented elements of the power structures of the evangelical movement and its leadership, as some claimed.

The evangelical elite does not control many among the proletariat, as The Guy noted while pondering evangelicalism's future last July 29, and the gap has grown since then. Revulsion over Trump's words and deeds provoked some evangelical leaders to favor Biden but evangelical voters gave Trump a healthy margin (as always with Republican nominees, witness Romney, McCain, Bush). This is especially true among nondenominational, independent churches and among some self-proclaimed Pentecostal prophets (see this important Julia Duin post)

Whatever the numbers and stature of the those who waved Jesus banners, the day sullied evangelical Protestantism, and perhaps even religious faith in general, for the vast American citizenry that believes Trump and his disciples tried to steal the election from Biden. 

Fairly or not, in the public mind and in the media, evangelicalism is now fused not just with the Republican Party but its dominant Trumpite wing. In a non-snarky column, Trump critic David Brooks of The New York Times contended that if resistance to political reality is not confronted this will devour "your nation and your church." He said a Christian friend frets that the split over Trump in evangelical families and churches "may take generations to recover." 

Well, no.

But for the next four years it's very likely to be the dominant story in U.S. religion and to undercut evangelical efforts to preach Christ to Americans and foster world missions. 

Though Trump has slumped to historically low approval ratings (new Pew Research numbers here) since he rejected Biden's Electoral College victory, he maintains a grip on a mass of voters, many evangelicals included. Moreover, he signals that he intends to control his political party through 2024 and might even run again unless the U.S. Senate votes to forbid this. (He'd be 78 if elected and 82 if he completes the term, the same as for Biden.)  

As GetReligion regulars know, when the media and other analysts say "evangelical" (as The Guy did above) they almost always mean white evangelicals; Hispanic and Black evangelicals are quite different in socio-political terms. With all the evangelical hubbub, what about Catholics, and especially the non-Hispanic white swing voters who customarily decide national elections? 

Writing in the Catholic magazine America, which favored impeachment and wants Trump barred from future office, Father James Martin accused some bishops and priests of complicity in the Jan. 6 riot because they made abortion, and thus votes for Trump, an apocalyptic do-or-die matter. But over-all Catholic support for Trump slipped in November and The Guy predicts what's left will now erode further.

Finally, a comment on the news biz. These five years have been ruinous as trust in journalism reached a new low. A year into the Trump presidency, The Guy fretted about this. Updating this scenario this week, GetReligion colleague Clemente Lisi asserts that as we enter the Biden era the fairness and non-partisanship that undergirded journalism's past stature is all but dead and on all sides. 

One big test now will be whether journalists who were incessantly harsh toward Trump (and he toward them) will demand equal accountability from the Biden Administration. It will also be important to note how journalists respond to Biden’s use of religious language and images, as opposed to how religious conservatives in public life have been viewed in the past few decades.