Posted on 10/21/2004 7:57:32 AM PDT by truthandlife
IF JESUS were voting in next month’s presidential election, Pastor Jim Henry frequently tells his congregation of 11,000 evangelicals, the Son of God would back the candidate most supportive of family values and the Bible. “And George Bush cares about those issues and that’s why he’s energised the evangelical base,” Pastor Henry told The Times yesterday inside his sleek, modern office at Orlando’s vast First Baptist Church. “And I’ve preached from the pulpit. I’ve told them that if they don’t go out and vote, they should be ashamed.”
For Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s chief political adviser, those words will be electoral manna. Mr Rove is a fervent believer in the power of America’s Religious Right to decide the election. It is now an article of faith inside the White House that if white born-again and evangelical Christians turn out in big numbers, Mr Bush cannot lose.
In the four years since the disputed 2000 election, Mr Rove has been obsessed by his conviction that up to four million evangelical Christians who should have voted for Mr Bush stayed at home, partly because of last-minute revelations about Mr Bush’s 1976 arrest for drink-driving.
Since then, Mr Bush has done everything possible to boost turnout among all religious voters, but has been particularly assiduous in his efforts to energise the predominately white, evangelical Christian Right.
Born a high-church Episcopalian, before turning to evangelical Methodism when he gave up drinking in 1986, Mr Bush laces all his speeches with religious rhetoric, has outlawed partial birth abortion, called for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposed stem-cell research and talks often about the power of Jesus Christ in his life — the essence of evangelical faith.
It is easy to see why. The Religious Right in America is a massive, largely Republican, “army of God”, with huge numbers in critical swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa. If it marches to the polling stations on November 2, Mr Bush’s faith is likely to be handsomely rewarded.
White Protestants in America who describe themselves as either born-again or evangelical account for a quarter of the electorate, a bigger voting bloc than blacks and Hispanics combined.
A recent poll by the National Annenberg Election Survey estimated that born-agains and evangelicals account for 36 per cent of registered voters in Missouri, 27 per cent in Ohio, 30 per cent in Iowa and 22 per cent in Pennsylvania. Recent polls show that up to 80 per cent of those voters prefer Mr Bush. Another survey found that 54 per cent of born-agains plan to vote for Mr Bush, while a massive 90 per cent of evangelicals plan to do so.
Calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, for example, was Machiavellian in its political calculation. Almost certain to die in Congress, the move forced Mr Kerry to oppose it. James Dobson, of the group Focus on the Family, now calls the fight against gay marriage “our D-Day or Gettysburg or Stalingrad.”
In Florida, the biggest prize among the battleground states, a third of voters describe themselves as evangelical. The state has more than 2,000 Baptist churches and a Baptist membership of nearly 1.1 million. Pastor Henry has been registering voters at his services since June. He does not tell them who to vote for, but it is clear that Mr Kerry, a practising Roman Catholic who backs abortion rights, is not the evangelicals’ favourite.
Another poll by the Barna Group found that Mr Bush also has a 63 per cent to 36 per cent lead among Catholic voters. If these voters need any more encouragement not to vote for Mr Kerry, the Republican National Committee directs them to a website: www.kerrywrongforevangelicals.com.
The party also sent a mass mailing to voters in West Virginia and Arkansas last month telling them that if Mr Kerry won, Bible-reading might be banned.
“George Bush is a man of principle,” Pastor Henry said. “Senator Kerry has taken the opposite stance on the values issues, right down the line. His wife says that she wants to push the gay rights agenda. To push a wrong lifestyle contradicts the Bible’s standards. I’ll think you’ll find that after this election, the evangelical vote has picked up a lot.”
In the last of the presidential debates, Mr Kerry tried to blunt Republican appeal among evangelicals by reminding them that Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, has a lesbian daughter. Nearly 70 per cent of voters, secular and religious, believed he was wrong to do it.
"IF JESUS were voting in next month’s presidential election, Pastor Jim Henry frequently tells his congregation"
What is with these ministers who claim Jesus would drive this car or would not buy this ect ect?? They should stick to preaching His word. Period.
We won't be able to preach his word if the liberals get their way. Vote for the candidates who don't promote ungodly principles. That's all they're saying.
Honestly, if Jesus were to vote in this Presidential election, who do you believe he would vote for ?
That's because they're fundamentalist liberals.
I've been hearing a lot in the press lately about evangelicals supporting Bush. Since when does the press pay attention to evangelicals? I think the MSM is playing this up to try to marginalize Bush and his supporters the way Clinton did in 92. I'm not encouraged by articles proclaiming Jesus would support Bush. Personally, I don't believe Jesus would have registered to vote.
Question about polling samples. How would the stay at home 4 years ago folks be treated by telephone bank callers trying to identify registered/likely voters?
I fail to see the problem with relating His Word to real-life situations. Do you doubt the insinuation that Jesus might lean more toward a man of faith vs. a man of sham-faith? As a Christian, I am made to understand that it is my DUTY to fight evil on every front. I happen to believ that Kerry is more closely aligned with evil than with God; if a minister doesn';t feel this way, he shouldn't be a minister.
What? Please cite some evidence of this. I despise liberals, but this sounds absurd to me.
I'm not going to make the same mistake these ministers make - namely claiming to KNOW what Jesus would do. I'll simply repeat an applicable line from the NT - Render unto Cesar what is Cesar and render unto God, what is God's.
If Jesus was an American in our day and age, yes I believe he'd vote for the candidate who holds Godly principles.
My wife and I were discussing this last night, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. My position is that Jesus wouldn't be too concerned with politics, that saving souls is more important to him than lowering taxes. Nonetheless, I believe that the War on Terror and Bush's role in it is God's will. I believe for the Islamofascists this is clearly a religious war. Do you think Bush is "an agent of God" or is he merely a man trying to do God's will? Any thoughts?
Actually, I heard Jesus IS registered to vote in an Ohio County.
Three times.
Can you think of portions of the New Testament that liberals might want to censor?
Applying hate speech codes to religious speech is a common goal of many people.
I think he'd vote for the candidate who would not be for legalizing the murder of unborn children...I truly do. I know Jesus' concern was not political...but Paul said that we were to honor our leaders and our governments in order to live peaceable lives. In our country, WE are the government. I believe Jesus would vote.
They are. It is a Christian's responsibility to be informed on what the Word has to say about all issues and then vote that way. Waving Kerry/Edwards fans and banners, and calling Kerry President is a different matter. In fact God is not in a million miles of those churches.
I don't think Jesus would give a hoot about the taxes, but I'm pretty sure He would find a lot of fault with pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage folks as leaders. I also believe that Bush is trying to be within God's Will as much as he can and that anyone who does this is an agent of God by that very virtue. I prefer lower taxes and a lot of other Bush policies, but those are not the sum of my reasons for backing Bush; as a Christian, I cannot contemplate backing someone like Kerry.
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