When Twelve Tribes go to war

(Big shout out to the Eighties with that subject line!)

Beliefnet has up a fascinating political analysis of the "Twelve Tribes" on the American religious landscape, and how they're behaving this election season. (The "Twelve Tribes" concept comes as a reaction to the blinkered way the US news media covers religion and politics, with their implicit but erroneous assumption that there are only two tribes: the Religious Right and Everybody Else).

The big news is that moral and social issues are much less important to religious voters this year. The economy trumps everything. Another big headline: Latino Protestants are leading the move of Hispanics toward Democrats.

Take a look at the report, and see which tribe you belong to. Me, I'm a Heartland Culture Warrior. Definition:

Who are they: Conservative Catholics and conservative mainline Protestants, Latter-day Saints, and other smaller groups. Less orthodox than the Religious Right (37% are biblical literalists) and more theologically diverse. But they are regular churchgoers (Nearly 80% report attending worship service weekly or more often).

A quibble: I disagree with Evangelical Protestantism/fundamentalism setting the baseline for Christian orthodoxy. But I know what they mean.

Back to the main finding of the survey: at what point does concern for the economy legitimately trump moral concerns? It's a question I wrestle with not only with regard to the economy, but with regard to war. An example: if a pro-life Christian legitimately fears that the pro-life candidate would clearly lead to an increased chance of economic disaster, and/or a significantly greater chance that the nation would go to war, is that voter justified in voting for the pro-choice candidate on prudential grounds?

It's easy for me to say I'm not going to vote for Obama because he's a pro-choice zealot (which he is), in part because I think he'll be even worse for the economy than McCain would (because spending will increase dramatically with a liberal Democratic president and a Democratic Congress). But I do think having McCain in the White House significantly increases the chances of war. And I don't think McCain will do anything about abortion (as distinct from Obama increasing abortions). OTOH, I think a vice president like Trig's mother would be symbolically important for the Culture of Life. But that's not much, granted.

I think Denver's Catholic archbishop, Chaput, has a good general rule of thumb for pro-life voters. You are not absolutely forbidden from voting for a pro-choice candidate, but if you do, make sure you can explain yourself in the next life to the babies who died from abortion.