‘Raw Politics’: Religious right leaning toward Democrats?
Which should immediately start your head to spinning seeing as how much spinning is done in the article itself:
For decades, evangelicals have been seen as solid supporters of the Republican Party. That could be changing.
The religious right, a cornerstone of the so-called Reagan revolution — the battle over abortion law, and gay marriage — wants a change.
At least some evangelicals do.
A group of influential Christian leaders are declaring they are tired of divisive politics, tired of watching fights over some issues trump all the good they could be doing.
“Our proposal in [our] manifesto is to join forces with all those who support a civil public square. … a vision of public life in which people of all faiths — which, of course, means no faith — are free to enter and engage public life on the basis of their faith,” said evangelical leader Os Guinness.
~~~Mara Vanderslice of Common Good Strategies is part of that effort.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve done wrong is sort of say that we just want a separation of church and state and only speak about religion in terms of separation,” Vanderslice said.
So the proof that the religious right will be heading Democrat way? Os Guinness, an angry evangelical who wrote a manifesto tackling both the right and the left for using religion for political purposes.
And Mara Vanderslice, a Democrat and one who helps Democrats with religious issues.
This is the evidence that the religious right will turn to the party who wants abortions legal? Gay marriage legal? Come on.
But they are putting up a good game of it. Pretending to represent a legitimate religious point of view while they utterly despise the people they’re attempting to deceive.
The article then moves onto Obama who did have some religious support but watched it quickly slip away for a few reasons we should all know by now….Rev. Wright:
In both states, frequent churchgoers were more apt to say they were influenced by Wright than were less actively religious voters. In North Carolina, among those who said they attend religious services weekly, nearly six in 10 called Wright important to their vote, almost double the figure among those who never attend services. Even among Obama’s own supporters in the Tarheel state, 45 percent who attend services weekly called the controversy important to their vote; among those, a third who rated it “very important.”
In Indiana, the issue also split voters: About half of those who attend services weekly or occasionally rated the Wright issue important, while only a third of those who never attend services said the same.
Oh, and the little issue of his support for infanticide:
At the federal level, legislation was presented called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) which stated all live-born babies were guaranteed the same constitutional right to equal protection, whether or not they were wanted.
BAIPA sailed through the U.S. Senate by unanimous vote and by an overwhelming majority in the House. President Bush signed the bill into law in 2002.
Stanek wrote that, “in Illinois, the state version of BAIPA repeatedly failed, thanks in large part to then-state Sen. Barack Obama. It only passed in 2005, after Obama left.”
“Obama articulately worried that legislation protecting live aborted babies might infringe on women’s rights or abortionists’ rights. Obama’s clinical discourse, his lack of mercy, shocked me. I was naive back then. Obama voted against the measure, twice. It ultimately failed.”
He started in the right direction pulling those churchgoers in but when the Rev. Wright exposed his racist head, along with the bitter small towners clinging to guns and religion statement, and his record on abortion became known there is no way in hell the religious right is leaning towards this man.
See author page
Wishful thinking.
I can’t stop laughing …
Carter won the “religious vote” too. There isn’t as many hot headed religious supporting the Republican cause anymore there are also liberal leanings in many religions. There is also issue leverage. If one sides with one camp, the other camp will just brush them off and find a way to win. If one doesn’t commit, both camps may do things to attract those voters. Besides how does a white female Southern Baptist union worker vote for a president?
While there is little doubt the conservative evangelical community (cec) is no longer as passionate for the Republican party as it was in 2004, and a good portion of it can be described as lukewarm, it’s quite unlikely a significant or even notable portion of them are leaning towards Democrats.
I’ve followed this subject for years and written a lot about it. I’ve always understood the cec in the Rep. party to be like blacks in the Dem. party; they are about the same size with the same dedication and influence.
As the election is almost half a year off, it’s very hard to make any empirically based arguments now. Good reasonable “speculation” is about any can afford now. So, without any safety net at all: I don’t think McCain will have the cec’s support in Nov. that Bush had in 04. But that doesn’t mean they will vote for Dems. …I think there’s a reasonable chance at least 15% will simply “stay home” in Nov.
I’ve read Os Guinness — I can assure you he didn’t say what they think he did; he is staunchly orthodox in biblical teachings, which are unanimous in their support for innocent human life and for the importance of traditional marriage.
Having said that, Os Guinness in no way speaks for the evangelical community — there are many leaders who generally speak for the community, but to say that evangelicals will start voting Democrat (a party that does not hold its social views) is to say something that simply isn’t true.
Think of it — a true-blue evangelical Christian voting for the party that has Pelosi, Reid, Kerry, Biden, Kennedy, and Obama as it’s key members? NO WAY.
Richard,
What about Franky Schaefer; he supports Obama, or Tony Campolo? They are evangelical and will probably support Obama …and be vocal about it.
Every evangelical I know is frightened that BO could be the next president… they don’t like McCain all that much, but he is much closer to them than BO (or Hillary) will ever be.
Last poll I saw had John the Unbaptized Baptist leading Obama 75%-25% with evangelicals. I guess they’re talking about that 25%.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004406277_evangvote11m.html
“Split down the middle”– I don’t think so, but there is little doubt that the conservative evangelical base is a lot more diverse in their prioritization of issues now and hence a smaller block group.
Which leads me predicting McCain will flip on a stance in his abortion position:
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15500.html
Perkins, the president of the FRC, and his friends recently tried to rally their forces at a Coral Ridge Ministries convention for the coming election; their tools of fear and paranoia echoed throughout the convention speeches:
McCain, who needs Perkins support, won’t get it without changing his platform and accepting the GOPs platform on abortion. However, once McCain makes the move it won’t be missed by the MSM. The central issue will probably be his ‘maverick’ status; it will appear exploited when contrasted with the support of the FRC. The MSM will see this union as oil and water when these two join together.
McCain is already showing signs of flipping on his rape/incest stance.
Doug:
“What about Franky Schaefer”
Um, Francis Schaeffer died about 24 years ago.
Campolo is a lefty — but I would say anything that Obama supports that contradicts biblical teachings Campolo will repudiate. Keep in mind that Campolo has a lot of critics in the evangelical community — they can’t stand his left wing views. Ergo, they will not support Obama in any significant numbers.
Some interesting thoughts from Bob Novack:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/11/AR2008051101786_pf.html
Today Huckabee emailed his pac dissing Obama and clearly showing his support for McCain. Huck certainly knows how to play the game well. In any case I think Novack exaggerates Obama’s Christian right support.
(Richard, Franky is Francis’s son. He’s a filmmaker, author, and political activist. )
i don’t consider myself to be “very religious”, but i know where i am in regards to my relationship and god. if you start asking small town church goers, they end up leaning for mccain, the urban ones tend to be more liberal, so there is a split. i just don’t see obama as an american values kind of guy. wheres the baseball and apple pie, those things are sort of at the core of “american values, that and the summer church picnic. i am getting sick of all of the over analizing of who will vote for obama, as far as i am concerned onama should drop out of the race he is unamerican.
(Richard, Franky is Francis’s son. He’s a filmmaker, author, and political activist. )
Ah, I had forgotten about him – well he isn’t considered mainstream either, having distanced himself from his father’s evangelicalism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schaeffer
Doug:
Oh yes, I forgot he had a son; thanks for the correction. Actually, his son left evangelicalism a while ago and follows Orthodox Christianity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schaeffer
I highly doubt he has much sway in evangelical circles.
I would doubt very seriously if any Bible believers are going to vote for Obama especially since he finds partial birth abortion perfectly acceptable.
New Evangelical document presents some interesting political intersections for the national election:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gIMD30g1mDuBXJyCdwZrew3j5RtQD90H2HCO2
I take this as another traffic sign on the road to the election that there is division in the significant evangelical community.
You can see Os discuss the document here:
http://blog.faithinpubliclife.org/2008/05/video_evangelical_manifesto_le.html
There is zero chance of the evangelical vote going anywhere other than John McCain.
For almost thirty years Pat Robertson and James Dobson have convinced Christian Fundamentalists that God is a registered Republican. No amount of evidence, facts or results can countermand that level of indoctrination.
In return James Dobson has veto power over Republican Supreme Court nominees (ask Harriet Meyers).
It is that simple.
You Conservatives have nothing to worry about. There is absolutely no one you can nominate for President, or policy you can persue that will lose that vote: Just as long as James Dobson keeps his veto.
Steve,
Full of conspiracies, projectionism, paranoia, lies, and spoon-fed propaghanda.
Your ignorance and bile were not missed. You are wrong time and again but cling religiously to your beliefs and “no amount of evidence, facts or results can countermand that level of indoctrination”.
Harriet Meiers experience in her short-lived nomination for the Supreme Court is the evidence upon which I base my statement that James Dobson has veto power over Republican Court nominees.
What is your evidence to the contrary?
Dobson supported her nomination.
What’s your point?
She was only nominated by President Bush after he received permission from James Dobson.
http://www.fcnp.com/532/besen.htm
Sorry, but the source you cited doesn’t support what you are claiming.
That’s not unusual though.