Posted on 02/05/2005 6:02:00 AM PST by johnny7
In the final Election Day reckoning, the race did not go to the loudest or most passionate religious voices. Instead, the judgments of moderate Catholics and Protestants were more influential than an impressive turnout by religious liberals and conservatives, according to the University of Akron's fourth national survey of religion and politics released this week.
The post-election survey of 2,730 adult respondents showed an increasingly polarized religious electorate, with nearly 90 percent of conservative evangelical Protestants voting for President Bush and nearly four in five liberal mainline Protestants choosing Sen. John Kerry. But it was in the center, among moderate Protestants and Catholics, that the Republicans gained a decisive edge on Election Day. Fifty-five percent of centrist Catholics, 58 percent of centrist mainline Protestants and 64 percent of centrist evangelical Protestants chose Bush. "The most obvious message would be to the Democrats . . . to do better among the centrists," said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
But Green said the survey results also should caution Republicans that if they put too much emphasis on pleasing religious conservatives, they could alienate the critical constituency in the religious middle. The survey sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life was conducted in November and December. The margin of error for the overall findings is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. In a report on the study, researchers Green, Corwin Smidt, James Guth and Lyman Kellstedt said the American religious landscape was even more strongly polarized in the 2004 presidential election than in 2000.
The good news for Democrats was that the religious left, in part motivated by opposition to the Iraq war, turned out in large numbers for Kerry. Seventy-eight percent of liberal mainline Protestants voted for Kerry, helping to divide the overall mainline Protestant vote 50-50 among Bush and Kerry. Sixty-nine percent of liberal Catholics voted for Kerry. Both groups had about a 70 percent voter turnout rate, well above the 61 percent turnout for the general population. Bush, however, took 88 percent of the conservative evangelical Protestant vote and 72 percent of the conservative Catholic vote, two groups that also turned out in large numbers.
In notable shifts from the 2000 election, in part reflecting voter interest in issues such as same-sex marriage, Bush notched a gain of 31 percentage points among Latino Protestants, a 17-percentage-point gain among conservative Catholics, an 11-percentage-point gain among moderate Catholics and a 12-percentage-point gain among black Protestant voters.
Faith did matter to many voters. Forty-seven percent of the respondents said faith was either the most important factor in their voting decision or about as important as other factors.
To reach this reporter: dbriggs@plaind.com, 216-999-4812
Religious left... the flock that follows Gene Robinson? Episcopal gay-Bishop from NH? Maybe they mean that group from the UK that served as human-shields at Saddams mosque/ammo-dumps. The druids? The devil worshippers... didn't they originally back Kucinich? And how about all those boyish-looking women in pink during the DNC... I think that flock follows the 'holy' texts of Nietzsche and Freud... sheeit, they reeked of religion!
Every year she and the other Quakers go down to help Fidel with the sugar cane harvest. (really)
I've been meaning to ask her who she voted for.
There's no such thing as a "religious left" in the modern era, given that the basic requirement of being on the left is hostility to all tradition - including religious tradition.
"Religious left" might mean faux-religious people, the kind that give a religion on surveys but haven't been to a service in so long, they've forgotten what the inside of a church/temple looks like. But to apply the word "religious" to those people is a misnomer.
There's also the faction whose hearts have bled their brains out that might be a "religious left", the folks who believe that one decent-hearted illegal immigrant is reason enough to inflict unrestricted illegal immigration with all its attendant consequences on the rest of us. But few of those are anything other than closeted (or non-closeted) Marxists who are more interested in undermining the rule of law, or alternatively making themselves out to be paragons of moral virtue, than religious.
Really, how do they get permission to visit Cuba?
The problem lies in the definitions. So called "Moderate Christians" are really conservative compared to the wacky left.
Loyal comrade that one. It boggles the mind.
Maybe this is what Hillary's new abortion "compromise" is all about.
Contributing money to church organizations may be supporting the "religious left." I advise everyone to make sure that they know where their "Church" donations end up. Look carefully at your church's expenditures. See what organizations are supported and what they in turn support. People may be surprised to find that many churches support the most outrageous left wing causes and will try to cover up or justify it if challenged. Just be careful when checking because the "church people" will lie to you.
They are Humanists... their compassion and love is for man... and man alone. If anything was their God... it would be science!
In other words, they are narcissists who think that posturing is a sacrament.
There most certainly is a religious left. R's claiming sole ownership of religion is as mistaken as D's fighting religion. How do you think religious Jews (as opposed to ethnic Jews) voted in NYC? How do you suppose deeply religious Muslims in Detroits suburbs voted?
I suggest you give your neighbor a t-shirt with "Useful Idiot" on it. And if you leave town, don't let her take care of your cat.
The government has granted limited permission for missionaries, pastors, and other clergy to travel to Cuba, but they have to fly from another country's airport. Usually the Dominican Republic or Mexico.
Nothing more than the results of the communist takeover of the WCC designed to undermine a faith in God replacing it with a faith in man.
I have thought that the Quakers tend to not vote. This is interesting as Nixon's religion is quoted as "Quaker" or "Society of Friends", but I have heard that he was not a practicing Quaker...
I would think that if the Quakers vote, they would tend to vote D as they are stereotypical considered pacifists in general.
Let's not forget the Unitarians. Most Unitarians I know voted for Kerry, but that could be a little schewed as I live near Seattle and am in a very blue area.
I consider myself a 'religious man' even though I avoid church... but when it becomes involved w/politics, I fall back on Stalin's famous quote... “How many divisions does the Pope have?”
I would say that ethnicity and not religion was the motivating factor behind their votes. And I would have you note that among Jews, at least, the more religious, the more likely to vote Bush.
Uhh, actually, being called "religious" is not a compliment.
There is a Religious Left, and it has been around a lot longer than the "religious right."
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