One-third of Republicans think Hollywood is biased against Christians, poll finds

(Reuters / Aaron P. Bernstein)Presidential candidate Donald Trump in Terre Haute, Indiana during one of his campaign events on May 15, 2016.

Christians, especially evangelicals, have long been viewed as a key voting component for the Repblican Party in U.S elections .

But with an election having a maverick like Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican Party candidate, pollsters are less sure about where evangelical Christians stand in the race.

About one third of Republicans say Christians say they are getting a bad rap in movies and TV shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter on July 17.

The newspaper cited the results from a Barna Group poll believe Hollywood is biased against Christians, an opinion that only 5 percent of Democrats share, the scientific poll found.

The poll was commissioned by the filmmakers behind "God's Not Dead 2," released at a screening in Cleveland ahead of the Republican National Convention that kicked off on July 18.

It did not take long to see not all of the Republicans were embracing each other, The New York Times reported.

JOHN KASICH

The Trump campaign lashed out at Gov. John Kasich for refusing to support Trump.

"He's embarrassing his party in Ohio," Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, said at a Monday morning breakfast, calling the decision "dumb."

John Weaver, a strategist for Kasich, ridiculed Manafort and accused him of being "on the lam" with thugs and autocrats.

The survey showing the movie industry's perceived attitude to Christianity at the film screening in Cleveland the day before was co-hosted by GOP Faith, an arm of the Republican Party/

The poll asked consumers: "What is your opinion of Hollywood's treatment of Christianity?"

The 32 percent of Republicans who answered that it generally portrays it "negatively" was more than six times the number of Democrats who answered similarly.

This result didn't surprise Pat Boone, one of the stars of the film.

"Christianity imposes restrictions on behavior, even in movies," Boone told THR.

"Hollywood doesn't like it when people tell them to stick to moral rules because it makes a lot of money breaking those rules. Orgies, vampires, zombies, debauchery of all forms. Anything goes, and it is liberal Democrats who are making these films. Depravity is profitable."

Boone cited an example from his own career, asserting that he was recently offered a role in a TV pilot where he'd play a Christian book publisher as "a heathen, money-grubbing hypocrite."

"This happens all the time," said Boone. "They tried to utilize my good image to skewer people of faith. They portray us as dunces."

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