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Left tries to regain religion, Democrats seek to offset GOP sway
newsobserver ^ | March 4, 2006 | Rob Christensen

Posted on 03/04/2006 1:42:06 AM PST by ncountylee

When the state Republican Party asked North Carolina churches last month to give them copies of their directories, the request rested on an assumption: Although God may not be a Republican, a majority of his most faithful adherents are. Or as the GOP memo put it, "people who regularly attend church usually vote Republican when they vote."

The memo reopened questions about whether one political party has an advantage in appealing to the faithful.

Which is one reason why several hundred people attended a forum Friday in Duke Chapel to discuss how they can recast the political debate so it is not so dominated by religious conservatives.

"It is a conversation we undertake with a new urgency," said Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill, who is co-chairman of a House Democratic caucus on religion. Price has a Yale divinity degree and is the son of a Baptist lay preacher.

"We see the religious banner being co-opted by people whose religion and politics, we think, falls short of the kind of public witness we ought to make," Price said Friday on WUNC's State of Things program.

One reason for the Democrats' urgency is that conservative evangelicals have become political shock troops for the Republican Party in the South. It is the same role that organized labor has played for northern Democrats, according to Mark Silk, an expert on religion and politics at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Silk said that because evangelical conservatives tend to be more committed voters, their importance is heightened in mid-term elections such as this year's, when there is traditionally a lower turnout.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dnc; dncstrategy; religiousleft; valuesvote
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1 posted on 03/04/2006 1:42:09 AM PST by ncountylee
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To: ncountylee
The Democrats are always to the left of the G.O.P. as in this photo, but the G.O.P. is gracious enough to always find a role for the Donkeys that make up the Democratic Party.

Image hosting by Photobucket

2 posted on 03/04/2006 2:01:31 AM PST by Bon mots
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To: ncountylee
I swear this must be the 100th article I have read regarding this subject since the conclusion of the 2004 election. The theme is always the same. How can the democrats lie to the religious citizens of America in order to secure their vote on election day.
3 posted on 03/04/2006 2:04:51 AM PST by saneright
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To: ncountylee
So, Satan will enter the church- for VOTES!. After all their anti- religion screaming, thy come in searth of PREY not prayer.
4 posted on 03/04/2006 2:09:28 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: ncountylee
Being gay and killing babies is consistent with Christian values! /sarcasm
5 posted on 03/04/2006 2:12:02 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: ncountylee

As long as the Dems remain the party of baby killers and sodomites their quest to "get religion" will be futile. Why don't they get that?


6 posted on 03/04/2006 2:15:39 AM PST by jocon307 (The Silent Majority - silent no longer)
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To: ncountylee

This is akin to the GOP visiting crack houses to take votes from Democrats. It's a pipe dream.


7 posted on 03/04/2006 2:16:33 AM PST by Jaysun (The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and don't want to hear both sides.)
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To: ncountylee
Unfortunately, this is the state of most of the democrat party and their encouragement of all sorts of evils...

21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

8 posted on 03/04/2006 2:19:33 AM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: ncountylee

Demons for Jesus. Whoda thunk it? LOL


9 posted on 03/04/2006 2:20:57 AM PST by mkjessup (The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)
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To: mkjessup

Good post, i laughed hard at that one. Well, Lucifer quoted the bible to Jesus didnt he? So why shouldnt the democrats try religion on the citizenry? As another poster said, democrats will explain to us why being gay, and murdering an unborn child is really what God wants us to do. We need to raise holy hell when a dem gets in a church pew and starts spewing his/her dogma, just as they do to others.


10 posted on 03/04/2006 2:26:07 AM PST by son of caesar
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To: jocon307
...their quest to "get religion" will be futile. Why don't they get that?

I believe this is because they don't grasp their constituency is fundamentally built out of voters who need excuses to justify what they approve, not people who "see things differently."

Religious people need no such excuses for what they approve, and therefore have no need for democrats/liberals to give them legitimacy.

11 posted on 03/04/2006 2:30:01 AM PST by papertyger
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To: ncountylee
The problem, though, is this:
The republican party has so abandoned its commitment to conservative government that if the Democrat party simply went pro-life and kicked out the gay loons, they would be virtually indistinguishable from Republicans, and would crush us. They do "big government" way better than we do.

If you doubt me, just ask Rick Santorum. The party has moved so much towards an interventionist, big gov't party that when Senator Santorum (who is a GOOD guy!) is challenged by an evangelical socialist, he has no party differences to fall back on -->> "You are pro-life? Well howdy doody, so am I! What else you got on your plate?"

Don't get me wrong. I love George Bush, voted for him twice and pray regularly for him. I hate the idea of a dem congress/senate. I am thankful for Alito and Roberts (VERY thankful).

I just think that "We pray, and we aren't as bad as them!" is a poor campaign slogan.

12 posted on 03/04/2006 2:47:34 AM PST by When_Penguins_Attack (Smashing Windows, Breaking down Gates. Proud Mepis User!!!!)
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To: ncountylee
Neither party has a lock on God.

One party has no ideas and the other has ideas but doesn't legislate with them.

If I could have a conversation with Jesus, one-on-one, my first question would be: "what do you think of Republicans and democRats?"

Somehow I think His answer would be silence, and He would just roll His eyes and sigh.

And I would get His point.

13 posted on 03/04/2006 2:58:42 AM PST by manwiththehands
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To: ncountylee

As long as NARAL, NOW and the Gaystapo keep a lock on Democrap party dogma, any chances they have of making any headway with religious Americans has no chance of flying.

But it's sort of funny to watch them try.


14 posted on 03/04/2006 3:06:09 AM PST by Ronin
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To: manwiththehands
If I could have a conversation with Jesus, one-on-one, my first question would be: "what do you think of Republicans and democRats?" Somehow I think His answer would be silence, and He would just roll His eyes and sigh. And I would get His point.

Y-u and G-d are on the same page, huh?

Don't kid yourself.

If you don't think Jesus would have something to say about the difference between pubbies and rats, you don't know a thing worth knowing about Jesus.

15 posted on 03/04/2006 3:16:36 AM PST by papertyger
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To: ncountylee

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

John 8:44
16 posted on 03/04/2006 3:47:00 AM PST by SkyPilot
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To: ncountylee
Liberals want to remove "One nation under God" from the Pledge Allegiance, what makes them think God can not see them for who they really are?

We all know there is a big list of anti-God things they do, and want to do. Their brain would explode trying to fake religion.

17 posted on 03/04/2006 3:51:44 AM PST by just me
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To: papertyger
Let's see: one party (Rats) have no ideas except maybe homosexual marriage and abortion. The other party (Republicans) CLAIM to have ideas and moral values but has done little if anything for the last 5 years to legislate by those ideas and values.

When faced with just the smallest level of controversy the Republicans will cave and compromise and become RINO's.

If I may paraphrase: "but since you are neither hot or cold but lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth."

I don't know a thing worth knowing about Jesus? Thanks for your critical insight. I guess you and God are on the same page.

18 posted on 03/04/2006 4:01:18 AM PST by manwiththehands
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To: ncountylee

"How can we fool themtoday?"
Rush Limbaugh


19 posted on 03/04/2006 4:21:28 AM PST by jmaroneps37 (John Spencer is the warrior we have been waiting for.We can trust him with our future.)
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To: manwiththehands
I don't know a thing worth knowing about Jesus? Thanks for your critical insight. I guess you and God are on the same page.

You seem to forget:

I'm not the one pontificating from fantasy conversations with Jesus. (where the only one speaking is you, I might add...)

I'm not the one spouting trite cliches about neither party having a lock on G-d.

I'm not the one making half-wit moral equivalences between advocates of infanticide and sodomy, and the tactical moves of those who are strategically beating those advocates.

I'm not the one calling the Republicans Laodecieans when their position is clearly closer to Pergamos.

All in all, your comments typify the mentality Amy Grant sang about years ago in her song "Fat Little Baby."

20 posted on 03/04/2006 4:28:44 AM PST by papertyger
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