Younger Evangelicals More Progressive on Issues. On Candidates, Not So Much.
Wednesday October 8, 2008
Categories: Barack Obama
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About God-o-Meter
This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about politics in our Politics forums.
The God-o-Meter (pronounced Gah-DOM-meter) scientifically measures factors such as rate of God-talk, effectiveness—saying God wants a capital gains tax cut doesn't guarantee a high rating—and other top-secret criteria (Actually, the adjustment criteria are here). Click a candidate's head to get his or her latest God-o-Meter reading and blog post. And check back often. With so much happening on the campaign trail, God-o-Meter is constantly recalibrating!God-o-Meter blogger Dan Gilgoff is Beliefnet's Politics Editor. A former political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, he is author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War.
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Hi Dan,
You raise an important question here, and I agree that there's no clear answer right now. But I think the point about the campaign here is that their outreach has been national in exposure but limited in scope. I can't speak to that one way or another, but just thought I'd weigh in with my impression from the press conference.
Ps, thanks for blogging about the poll!
It seems to me that Obama hasn't made more inroads into the "evangelical" community because evangelicals (like conservative Catholics) are far more in touch with the biblical tradition than are "mainline" Protestants. (I put "mainline" in quotes because churches such as the Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian are in sharp decline; "sideline" might be a more appropriate moniker.)Until recently (and I'm assuming that Obama resigned from his denomination when he split from Jeremiah Wright's church), he was a long-time member of the United Church of Christ--the most liberal American Protestant denomination. (A conservative UCC pastor once jokingly referred to his denomination as "Unitarians Considering Christ.") Liberal Protestantism helped bring us abortion on demand under Roe v. Wade, perhaps not even realizing how anathema abortion is to the Christian tradition. Obama isn't in the same universe as evangelicals, and they're smart enough to see it. Unlike the majority (?) of Americans, they haven't been hypnotized by Obama. They march to the beat of a Different Drummer. (BTW, I am not an evangelical.)
The mainstream news media has been, with few exceptions, very protective of Obama, not mentioning any of the specific sweeping pro-abortion policy changes that he has supported in the past and to which he is committed for the future. Fortunately, many evangelicals know better than to rely exclusively on the mainstream news media for their information. So more and more evangelicals are becoming aware, for example, that Obama would end the Hyde Amendment, the law that cut off almost all federal funding of abortion. More than one million Americans are alive today because of this law. They are learning that Obama is a cosponsor of the "Freedom of Choice Act" (S. 1173), a bill that would invalidate virtually all state and federal limitations on abortion, including parental notification laws. In addition, this bill would make partial-birth abortion legal again. In 2007, Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act."
They are also learning that, in the Illinois state Senate, Obama killed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was a simple three-sentence bill to provide protection for babies who are born alive during abortions. Obama has misrepresented the substance of this legislation and his record on it for the last four years, and he continues to do so, as the mainstream news media flies cover for him.
Documentation on these and other Obama abortion policies is found at www -dot-nrlc-dot-org
Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee
I’ve always found it interesting how specific sects of Christianity are so concerned about running other peoples lives, what they can have or not have, be it abortion or same sex marriage. There are far more pressing issues rather than abortion or same sex marriage, which, by the way, is a personal choice.
Perhaps these particular groups should concentrate on the economy, health care, etc., and leave people alone to choose for themselves what they want rather than trying to dictate “their” morals to everyone.
Personally, I don’t need or require their beliefs to tell me what I should have.
This is one of the many reasons I view them of being suspect or pathetic. I see little difference between them and the Taliban in that they want and demand everyone to follow their religious beliefs and be bound to them by law. I'm sure they would be screaming at the top of their lungs if another religious group attempted the same thing that they're always trying to do in the U.S.
Ron has a point in his analogy between the Taliban and evangelical Christians in the U.S.---different theology, same theocratic impulse. It is why we outside this evangelical world are as frightened of the Republican Party as you seem to be of us. Yet, Sundays apart, we lead rather similar lives: jobs, mortgage payments, mowing the lawn in time to get the younger kids to softball practice, worries about the older kids and their grades and their friends. Yes, we accept our gay friends and aquaintences because it's the tolerant thing to do. If you're intolerant, don't have gay friends---but don't expect the state to enforce your preferences for you, or to embody your disgust in discriminatory laws. If you don't want an abortion, don't have one, but please try to understand that thoughtful, decent, lawn-mowing Americans have a legitimate intellectual disagreement with you on the moral status of abortion. We would never force you to have one; where do you draw the line on overriding our liberty with your social and moral preferences? Where do the Taliban draw the line?
It is disappointing that younger Evangelicals haven't completely broke from the previous generation. They need a good dose of Paul Tillich or Walter Rauschenbush. Most of their theological education, so far, seems very shallow. Most of Americans have moved beyond the abortion issue, it's too bad they haven't also.
Interesting article. I was raised Pentacostal, and still attend a Pentacostal church. I have taken alot of criticism for my support of Obama. Unlike the young evangelicals polled in this article, healthcare is my primary concern as I am pursuing a bachelors of science in nursing at UT. I have witnessed many unfortunate, preventable situations in my clinical experience, and I strongly believe that this country desperately needs health care reform. How can we say that our country is so great when even Cuba and South Korea have lower infant mortality rates than we do? A land of opportunity for whom? Certainly not infants! That is just one of the many horrific health disparities in America. It's time to get our priorities right. I also strongly support women's right to choose, and I don't think that a law with a 30+ years precedent should decide whether or not you vote for someone. It's not going anywhere!
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