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Election Reinforces U.S. Religious Divide (voters impelled by moral issues---snubbed Iraq war)
ABC NEWS ^ | Nov 4, 2004 | AP

Posted on 11/05/2004 2:01:26 AM PST by Liz

Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Approvals Reinforce U.S. Religious and Moral Divide

President Bush's victory, the approval of every anti-gay marriage amendment on statewide ballots and an emphasis on "moral values" among voters showed the power of churchgoing Americans in this election and threw the nation's religious divide into stark relief.

"The churchgoers, those who voted along cultural lines, put (Bush) over the top," said George Marlin, author of "The American Catholic Voter."

Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International showed clearly that the president draws much of his support from religious people:

Bush won 52 percent of the Roman Catholic vote on Tuesday, and got the support of 56 percent of white Catholics, defeating the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party since John F. Kennedy. In 2000, Bush narrowly lost the Catholic vote.

Bush was favored by 61 percent of people from all faiths who attend services weekly; they made up 41 percent of the electorate. Democrat John Kerry drew 62 percent of Americans who never attend worship, but they only accounted for 14 percent of voters.

When respondents were asked to pick the one issue that mattered most in choosing a president, "moral values" ranked first at 22 percent, surpassing the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).

Gay marriage bans were handily approved in all 11 states that held referendums, and analysts said that issue drove up turnout. "This was a high stakes election for those who support traditional moral values," said Geoffrey Layman, a University of Maryland political scientist.

Another index of evangelical support: Republicans seeking open congressional seats who were endorsed by Gary Bauer's conservative Campaign for Working Families. They won all 12 contests, five in the Senate and seven in the House.

A leading conservative activist, the Rev. D. James Kennedy of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said the voters "have delivered a moral mandate."

"Now that values voters have delivered for George Bush, he must deliver for their values," Kennedy said.

More liberal believers, meanwhile, found the results deeply disconcerting, but also saw them as a call to action.

"This election confirmed that we are a divided nation, not only politically but in terms of our interpretation of God's will," said the Rev. Robert Edgar, a former Democratic congressman and general secretary of the National Council of Churches.

The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State put it more starkly. "The culture war may go nuclear," he said, as "millions of Americans oppose the theocratic agenda of the Religious Right."

The problem, said Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine, is that too many fellow liberals are "trapped in a long-standing disdain for religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that underlie the move to the right." They need to shed a core belief that Bush voters "are fundamentally stupid or evil."

The left, he and others argue, has to show the religious basis for its policy positions and not let the right define morality.

Each side courted the Catholic vote aggressively, with Kerry forced to buck the leaders of his own church over his support of abortion rights. A handful of bishops said politicians like Kerry shouldn't receive Communion, and many others emphasized church teaching against abortion.

"To run in the Democratic Party you have to be pro-choice, but the church says you have to be pro-life," said Marlin, a Catholic conservative.

Layman, the Maryland political scientist, said that meant Kerry couldn't "use his Catholicism as a strength to appeal to Catholics. He was put in this box by the bishops."

In the end, the majority of Catholics preferred an anti-abortion, Methodist incumbent to one of their own underscoring that today's religious divide cuts across denominational lines.

The election shows that Democrats in 2008 "are going to have to say they are religiously attuned to America and make it stick and make it authentic," said Michael Cromartie, an expert on evangelicalism at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center. "All future political consultants are going to have to understand religious sensibilities as part of the resume."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bushvictory
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To: GeronL

Everything I've read the past two days, is that the Dems are realizing they have to adopt the conservative way of thinking to win, or pretend to! Is this ironic or what????


21 posted on 11/05/2004 2:25:56 AM PST by blondee123 (Proud Member of the FR Pajama Blogger Brigade - New Sheriffs in Town!)
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To: Liz

Last night on H&C the President of NOW was on and she said if the Democratic party abandoned "the rights of gays" she would bolt.

That's the way it is. The left currently controls the RAT agenda. But if the moderate RATS (??) tried to take the party back, the left would abandon them. They would probably vote 3rd party, splitting the RATS in two.

The RATS are stuck between a rock and a hard place. And as someone who has lived in China, where you occasionally see a smashed rat on the street (where someone has taken a rock and clobbered one of the critters on the pavement) I have to tell you: it ain't a pretty sight.

Meanwhile, what IS a pretty sight (to contemplate a completely different image, for a moment) is that photo of the Bush family posing together shortly after the election victory. What a sweet victory. What a wonderful family. What a great President. What a wonderful country. What a great election.


22 posted on 11/05/2004 2:26:43 AM PST by samtheman (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: blondee123

They will just pretend


23 posted on 11/05/2004 2:27:30 AM PST by GeronL (Congratulations Bush on your re-election VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: samtheman

I want them to split into 3 or 4 parts


24 posted on 11/05/2004 2:28:19 AM PST by GeronL (Congratulations Bush on your re-election VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Liz
"Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Approvals Reinforce U.S. Religious and Moral Divide"


This has to be Hillry's worst nightmare. One has to wonder what will be the liberals approach to overturning the will of voters.
25 posted on 11/05/2004 2:29:27 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: GeronL
I want them to split into 3 or 4 parts
I want their heads to explode.
26 posted on 11/05/2004 2:29:30 AM PST by samtheman (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: ProudVet77

1. I haven't heard any post-election analysis of veterans' votes either, but all the polls in the months before the election consistently showed Kerry losing veterans 70-30 or higher. The Swifties did a great job on this and I was a happy contributor.
2. Maybe be need a campaign in the MSM to change "anti-gay marriage" to "pro-traditional marriage" just like transforming from "anti-abortion" to "pro-life" several years ago, which was a long struggle.
3. I am so happy W won!!!


27 posted on 11/05/2004 2:31:54 AM PST by Viet Vet in Augusta GA
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To: drt1

Sadly I suspect there is no way to get the data. The MSM who pays for all those polls saw Kerry as a true hero, so it would never dawn on them to ask that question.


28 posted on 11/05/2004 2:32:01 AM PST by ProudVet77 (W stands for Winner)
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To: Liz
The exit polls weren't accurate from the beginning and now some want to tell us the exit polls mean that only moral issues drove the election... but not the war.

It's their new matra, their desperate effort to continue to try to define the war as a failure.

But the election's single most important issue really was the war, and our objection to the way the media had twisted it and undermined it.

We knew the media had twisted its reporting because we all had our loved ones involved in the fight and from them we heard news we could trust and uses as a baseline for deciding for ourselves how the war was going.

The rejection of Hollyweird values was a part of it, but then, moral issues also applies to matters of war and peace, terrorism and so on. To a conservative, everything relates to moral issues. The term covers a broad range of ideas, depending on who you're talking to and when you talk to them. Some may think of the defense of marriage when asked, while others' first concern is defense of religious liberty in a war against Islamic zealots, and still others are concerned about integrity in business.

29 posted on 11/05/2004 2:34:25 AM PST by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
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To: Just mythoughts

Civil War seems to be the only option open to them (/sarc).


30 posted on 11/05/2004 2:35:28 AM PST by Liz (The man who establishes the reputation of rising at dawn, can sleep til noon.)
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To: Dataman

The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State put it more starkly. "The culture war may go nuclear," he said, as "millions of Americans oppose the theocratic agenda of the Religious Right."
To put it more starkly-it is those who believe in moral and family values that are defending themselves from phonies like the supposedly-Rev. Barry Lynn and the immoral crusade of the Hollywood left.


31 posted on 11/05/2004 2:38:46 AM PST by RaginRak
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To: xtinct; Liz; eastsider; sandyeggo
He was talking out two sides of his mouth. People recognized that despite the efforts of educators to dumb them down.

ROFL!!!

My 18 year old teen cast her first vote in this election. She is a recent graduate of the pub(l)ic education system, indoctrinated into every liberal doctrine they threw at her. Difference is ... she tossed it right back at them, snubbing the annual GLBT 'Day of Silence', demanding an equivalent day for the those silenced by abortion. She voted Bush! At school, the morning after the election, other students expressed anger at the Bush victory. She asked them if they had voted. Hearing that not one of them had bothered to register, she simply told them they had no right to complain. God bless her defiant mind and beautiful heart!

32 posted on 11/05/2004 2:39:15 AM PST by NYer ("The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops." St. John Chrysostom)
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To: piasa

Your intellectually facile comments betray an agenda, and are not worthy of FR commentary.

Moral issues means moral issues means moral issues. Every true conservative worth his salt knows what that means.

Period. End of discussion.


33 posted on 11/05/2004 2:43:59 AM PST by Liz (The man who establishes the reputation of rising at dawn, can sleep til noon.)
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To: Liz
See here for more tolerance and compassion:
34 posted on 11/05/2004 2:44:05 AM PST by NYpeanut (gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him, "Why did you lie to me?")
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To: Liz
What they are missing is the fact that the gay marriage issue brought out a lot of voters who are not Christan. I was very surprised that many of my left leaning friends were more anti-gay marriage than I was. These were people I thought would embrace it wholeheartedly. When they voted they voted Kerry or Nader but all voted for the ban on gay marriage. The press is making this look like a bunch of narrow minded Christians are the only ones who voted against it. It is simply not true and it is a backhanded way to taking another slap at the religious right. The religious right is certainly a force to be reconded with but the press grossly overestimates their power. They do not report that it is not unusual for the religious right to sit out elections. The way the press makes it sound is that every evangelical and catholic are at the polls every time. The facts do not back that up

I spoke with a friend last night who was very upset that Bush won. She said now all birth control, stem cell research and abortions will be baned. I doubt that greatly. The press trts to make the Christan right the very picture of evil. She said Bush would just go in lockstep with whatever Pat Robertson and his ilk dictated. She and many like her believe that Bush is basically stupid and is being controlled by powerful Christian groups. I told her that Bush was no ways near as stupid as the press would have us believe. I mentioned that the Christian right is just another special interest group and has as much right to speak and push their agenda as groups like the Sierra Club or Move On. Org. One may disagree with them but that does not give the left to try and silence them.

35 posted on 11/05/2004 2:44:18 AM PST by foolscap
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To: NYer

Glad she's on our side.


36 posted on 11/05/2004 2:45:34 AM PST by Liz (The man who establishes the reputation of rising at dawn, can sleep til noon.)
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To: Liz
"Civil War seems to be the only option open to them (/sarc)."

You may well be correct on 'Civil War', I really expected the liberals to make immigration as their stealth weapon, and would have no qualms about starting a blood letting.
37 posted on 11/05/2004 2:45:47 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: foolscap; Just mythoughts; NYer; Calpernia

Wait til the Left finds out that:

(A) Presdent Bush issued an open invitation to the 59,054,087 Bush voters to attend daily prayer services in the Capitol rotunda.

(B)President Bush is authorizing $2 billion from the NEA to erect a cross on the White House lawn.

(C) President Bush will issue an executive order to place marble replicas of the Ten Commandments in every courtroom in the US.


38 posted on 11/05/2004 2:48:18 AM PST by Liz (The man who establishes the reputation of rising at dawn, can sleep til noon.)
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To: badpacifist; 26lemoncharlie; No_Outcome_But_Victory

Bump!


39 posted on 11/05/2004 2:49:23 AM PST by NYer ("The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops." St. John Chrysostom)
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To: NYpeanut

LOL........good zinger. Thanks.


40 posted on 11/05/2004 2:49:30 AM PST by Liz (The man who establishes the reputation of rising at dawn, can sleep til noon.)
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