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Election 2012 Marks the End of Evangelical Dominance in Politics
The Atlantic ^ | 11/13/2012 | Jonathan Merritt

Posted on 11/16/2012 4:57:28 AM PST by darrellmaurina

Ever since Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, evangelicals have been a powerful political force. Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority organization were credited in part with Reagan's election, having registered millions of evangelicals to vote. Their influence would only grow over the next 25 years: Evangelicals were instrumental in Reagan's reelection, the Republican Revolution of 1994, and both of George W. Bush's victories. But on November 6, 2012, their reign came to an end.

"I think this [election] was an evangelical disaster," Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told NPR. He's right, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

The late Falwell's Liberty University gave former governor Mitt Romney its keynote spot at its 2012 commencement and backed off previous language calling Mormonism a "cult." Billy Graham uncharacteristically threw his support behind the Republican candidate, and his evangelistic association bought full-page newspaper ads all but endorsing Romney. Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition spent tens of millions in battleground states to get out the religious vote.

As a result, 79 percent of white evangelicals voted for Romney on Tuesday. That's the same percentage that Bush received in 2004, and more than Senator John McCain received in 2008. The evangelical vote was 27 percent of the overall electorate -- the highest it's ever been for an election.

Their support wasn't enough. Not only did Obama win soundly, but four states voted to allow same-sex marriage.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; romney; santorum
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To: ilovesarah2012

Only in certain parts of the country.

LLS


21 posted on 11/16/2012 8:12:51 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (I AM JOHN GALT)
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To: Tea American Party Patriot
Exactly, some people really don’t think obama is that bad and they hate mormons.

Evangelicals voted for Romney by 79%, no one else came close to that level of support.

So I hope you weren't talking about Evangelicals, now the 'non-affiliated with a religion' voted for Romney by 26%, that must be who you mean.

22 posted on 11/16/2012 10:56:17 AM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: NKP_Vet
ZERO won because hispanics are totally ignorant of their Catholic faith and most would rather have free government handouts than work for a living.

Catholic Hispanics vote democrat, as Catholics always have, Hispanic Protestants are closer to voting like Protestants always have, and are in play, for instance voting republican by 56% in 2004, and 48% in 2008.

23 posted on 11/16/2012 11:02:59 AM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: darrellmaurina
"decided to downplay the seriousness of Mitt Romney's theological aberrations, and the fact that he hasn't even been faithful to his own Mormon conservative values on issues like abortion and gay marriage."-"I am no Mormon, but if I were a Mormon, I would be a strong opponent of the Mitt Romney-Harry Reid wing of the LDS, and be doing whatever I could to fight it."

That is way off base, the average Mormon does not rise up to the level of devoted faith, and truth to doctrine, that Temple Mormons, Bishop Romney and Harry Reid do, they are examined, and certified in the devoutness, and are even issued IDs proving that.

Bishop Romney received the personal permission of his Holy Prophet to run for president, and he had the full support of the Quorum of 70, and many thought him the fulfillment of prophecy.

Governor Romney's position within the religion is such, that Mitt himself was personally excommunicating Mormons of lessor devotion, before he requested permission to leave those duties, and run for political office.

24 posted on 11/16/2012 11:22:43 AM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: ansel12

“Catholic Hispanics vote democrat, as Catholics always have, Hispanic Protestants are closer to voting like Protestants always have”

Now what percentage of hispanics do you think are protestant? 1 or 2%? The vast majority identify themselves as Catholic, even though they vote like their face is black instead of brown. White (working) Catholics, who attend Mass on a regular basis and try to live their life according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, vote for the most conservative candidate and that candidate is not a democrat. Just like any other faith, if you are a regular church goer and live your faith, the republicans can count on your vote. Makes no difference what demonination. The party of death gets the hypocrite vote.


25 posted on 11/16/2012 12:26:26 PM PST by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

Protestants are about 31% of the Hispanic voters.

The Catholic denomination has always been a democrat voting block.

Romney winning 48% of the Catholic vote, is one of the greatest republican margins of all time.

This current period of 1972 to 2012, is as good as it gets, it was the glory days of the GOP sometimes winning a slim margin of the Catholic vote.

In fact, with possibly the exception of the disputed election of 1956, ALL of the handful of times that the GOP have picked up a slim margin from the Catholics, was 1972-2012.

“”Rothman and Lichter researched and wrote a book on American radicals, “The Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Christians and the Left” back in 1982. They discovered that the Christian component of the Left were largely Catholics.””


26 posted on 11/16/2012 12:44:17 PM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: ansel12
Ansel, I affirm what Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 80 says about the Roman Catholic Mass. Roman Catholics at the Council of Trent said some pretty bad things about Protestant doctrine, too. I do not minimize the theological differences.

I also recognize that the Roman Catholic Church on economic issues has what might be charitably called a medieval and paternalistic view of the role of the state. There are important areas of disagreement even there, and they came out when Rick Santorum’s views on economics got criticized for being out of line with standard conservative evangelical views and even more different from secular conservative or libertarian views.

However, would you not make a distinction between the general population of people who call themselves Catholics and those who are committed Mass-going Catholics? We can't compare all Catholics to churchgoing evangelical Protestants without recognizing that there are major differences in commitment levels within Roman Catholicism, just as there are major differences within Protestantism.

A practicing Catholic who goes to Mass regularly and cares about what his church teaches is going to be much more similar to an evangelical Protestant in voting patterns.

Granted, evangelicals have their Ron Siders and Tony Campolos, and seriously committed Catholics have their social liberals, too.

But I don't see social liberals as being anywhere close to a majority of practicing Roman Catholics who take their faith seriously.

27 posted on 11/16/2012 1:25:00 PM PST by darrellmaurina
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To: darrellmaurina

I’m not interested in internal religious purity of individuals within denominations, I am interested in a denomination voting democrat, in an almost perfect record for 160 years.

A powerful, large denomination, and one which has fought to pass laws to import 10s of millions of more democrat voters, to vote democrat.

The non-Catholic, Christian vote, as loose, diverse, and varied a category as one can make, has only gone democrat 3 times in history, 1932, 1936, and 1964.


28 posted on 11/16/2012 1:39:25 PM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: ansel12

“The Catholic denomination has always been a democrat voting block.

Romney winning 48% of the Catholic vote, is one of the greatest republican margins of all time”

You make a mistake by throwing in the welfare hispanics when you count “catholic votes”. Take away the freeloaders that expect open borders and more food stamps from the “catholic vote” that Obama received, and he gets no where near the 51% of the overall “catholic vote”. Like I have said before anyone that claims to be Catholic and still votes for the party that believes in murdering unborn children and sodomite “marriage” should not be included in the statistics for the “catholic vote”. You can’t be for abortion on demand and sodomite “marriage” and still be Catholic. But the media loves to throw in this crowd and call them Catholic because they hate the Catholic Church. And from your replies I see that you are a Catholic-basher also.

There is no more “conservative” church in the world than the Catholic Church. When Roe v. Wade came along the Catholic Church stood almost alone among the Christian faith in standing up for the rights of unborn children. 99% of all protestant “churches” went along with abortion on demand. The Catholic Church also does not ordain women and homosexuals. Just about all the protestant faiths let women preach and allow homosexual preachers. There are some leftist “catholics” out there, but they know damn well what their faith expects of them and they snub their noses are faithful “conservative” Catholic teachings. The Catholic Church does have a history of supporting democrat politicians, but there was a time when the party had not been taken over by the pro-death crowd. The party before the early 70s was pro-life and certainly didn’t allow homosexual “marriage”. The party JFK was part of would be ashamed of today’s democrat party and no doubt JFK would be republican. He was a conservative.


29 posted on 11/16/2012 4:02:00 PM PST by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

Hispanics just got here, and the Catholic vote has always been democrat, besides, the Catholic church is a single denomination, it doesn’t matter what race or sex a Catholic is, he is still a member of the single denomination, even baptized into it.

JFK was a democrat, and would be a democrat, and would still be a liberal Catholic calling for importing more Catholics for his party.

From unionizing government, to Vietnam, to the 1965 immigration act, JFK was the end of us.

“However, if there is one man who can take the most credit for the 1965 act, it is John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy seems to have inherited the resentment his father Joseph felt as an outsider in Boston’s WASP aristocracy. He voted against the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, and supported various refugee acts throughout the 1950s.
In 1958 he wrote a book, A Nation of Immigrants, which attacked the quota system as illogical and without purpose, and the book served as Kennedy’s blueprint for immigration reform after he became president in 1960.
In the summer of 1963, Kennedy sent Congress a proposal calling for the elimination of the national origins quota system. He wanted immigrants admitted on the basis of family reunification and needed skills, without regard to national origin. After his assassination in November, his brother Robert took up the cause of immigration reform, calling it JFK’s legacy. In the forward to a revised edition of A Nation of Immigrants, issued in 1964 to gain support for the new law, he wrote, “I know of no cause which President Kennedy championed more warmly than the improvement of our immigration policies.”
Sold as a memorial to JFK, there was very little opposition to what became known as the Immigration Act of 1965.”


30 posted on 11/16/2012 6:32:13 PM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: darrellmaurina

Wanna bet? It ain’t the Evangelicals who voted... it is the ones who didn’t.


31 posted on 11/16/2012 6:48:32 PM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: ansel12

Like I said before, which you ignored, the democrat party was not the party of death until the early 1970s. JFK was pro-life as were all Catholic politicians. They followed their faith and it’s teachings. It was the worthless Ted Kennedy flipping on abortion, in a blatant attempt to get the bra burner’s vote, that directly led to the democrat party becoming the leftist, wacky, pro-death, pro-homo “marriage” party that is is today. You also ignored the fact that the Catholic Church stood alone in defending life when Roe w. Wade was crammed down our throats in 1973. And like I said before, devout Church going Catholics vote conservative. I could care less what the once a year at Mass crowd do. They should get out of the Church. All they do is make practicing Catholics look bad with their hypocritical ways. No one that promotes abortion on demand and homo “marriage” can call themselves Catholic. Abortion and homo “marriage” are intrinsic evils and not to be condoned by any Catholic. Period. End of Story.


32 posted on 11/16/2012 8:42:08 PM PST by NKP_Vet
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To: darrellmaurina

Millions of Republicans stayed home. Maybe they are sick of moderates.


33 posted on 11/16/2012 10:34:22 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: NKP_Vet

While the majority of practicing Catholics voted for Romney, not enough of them did.

We need to write letters to editors to Catholic newspapers to reach more Catholics. As long as you don’t mention a particular candidate, they can publish it without worrying about losing tax-exempt status.


34 posted on 11/16/2012 10:40:17 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: NKP_Vet

I don’t know what any of this has to do with the Catholic being democrat, as a conservative you should care about that, not trying to convince everyone that voting data doesn’t exist.

As far as we know JFK was pro-abortion, or would be if he was ever asked, someone was pushing abortion long before RVW.

I don’t really care about yours or other people’s religious issues within the church you attend, but I do regret that Catholics vote liberal, democrat and pro-abortion, as a denomination, Christians could have really used the help of voters who are Catholics.

That goes for 2008 and 2012 also.


35 posted on 11/16/2012 11:05:19 PM PST by ansel12 (The only Senate seat GOP pick up was the Palin endorsed Deb FischerÂ’s successful run in Nebraska)
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To: ansel12

“I don’t really care about yours or other people’s religious issues within the church you attend, but I do regret that Catholics vote liberal, democrat and pro-abortion, as a denomination, Christians could have really used the help of voters who are Catholics”

59% of WHITE CATHOLICS voted for Romney. If he had not been a morman he might have gotten 75% of WHITE CATHOLIC votes.

Those that identify themselves as Catholic vote the same as evangelicals or any other type of faith. If you attend Church on a regular basis you tend to vote republican. The slackers and hypocrites (all faiths included), who could less about their faith, vote for the person that promises free handouts..................and that is the democrat party.

JFK, like the vast majority of Americans before the radicals took over the democrat party in the early 70s, was pro-life. Abortion was not an issue in American politics before Roe w. Wade. Everyone knew it was wrong to murder the unborn. By the MLK Jr. was pro-life and also a republican.

Finally you need to work on your evangelical friends and ask them why they are members of faiths that believe in homosexual pastors and women preachers.........and why they take no stance on murdering the unborn. The Episcopalians being the prime example. But the Presbyterian Church, the Lutheran Church, and the vast majority of protestant “churches” ordain openly homosexuals to their ranks. They also take no stance on aborting children. So please tell me how “liberal” the Catholic Church (that allows none of this anti-God nonsense) is compared to your protestant friends.


36 posted on 11/17/2012 7:41:24 AM PST by NKP_Vet
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To: darrellmaurina

Yes, but those white northern Catholics assimilated into the larger culture and became culturally liberal/agnostic democrats and did not become part of the conservative movement. Hispanics now support gay marriage by about 50% and are not as religious as previous immigrants. Don’t delude yourself about the “Catholic” vote.


37 posted on 11/17/2012 7:47:29 AM PST by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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To: NKP_Vet

Please show me a heavily Catholic state, city, or congressional district that votes regularly Republican. (Crickets).


38 posted on 11/17/2012 7:50:05 AM PST by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Big government and a paternalistic state have gone hand and hand everywhere Catholicism has dominated. The Free Market is not a core part of the Romanist ethos.


39 posted on 11/17/2012 8:03:51 AM PST by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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To: NKP_Vet

Your lovely fatso white working class gave Obama Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. They are also not as devout as their parents and grandparents were. There is a party for the working class and it is the Democrats. The Republicans are the party of the producers, not the Proles.


40 posted on 11/17/2012 8:08:24 AM PST by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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