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.
Flooding into Black churchs spouting scriptures that were dug up by staff members didn't get the job done this time and won't the next ,if all of the Chriatians that were praying so hard ,will not forget to continue to humble themselves and pray for our country and President. The victory must be God's.
Beware what the libs say, they will say what they think you want to hear.
Thankfully. believers saw throught Kerry's deception. Daschle's, too.
^5 to your daughter
One indication is their constant harping on "war talk" and using that as justification for just about anything.
We need to be very vigilant about that.
Here it comes ....
"Asked Thursday what brought Kerry down, the former Democratic National Committee chairman blamed The Swiftboat Veterans and POWs for Truth. "
Rendell Speaks... MSM Listens
That sounds like something straight from DU. Those people are so paranoid.
Nice find.
Yeah, that's why it's posted.......gotta give them a little charge.....poor DUmmies are so depressed.
Yes.
The last poll results I saw had the active military voting in record numbers – with 75% for President Bush.
There is no one group that reelected the president, but as Americans we must have everything – no matter how complicated – condensed into one line 15 second sound bytes.
The religionists will claim credit, as will the active military, the veterans, the patriots, the hard core republicans, the anti-elitists, the anti-Hollywood…
In reality it was many different people with many different reasons.
He has lied consistently since he first decided that he knew more about the first amendment than the very men who actually wrote it.
Where 200 years of moral tradition and legal interpretation disagreed with his narrow elitist view of the law, he simply lied about history and original intent.
He has to be one of the most practiced and cunning LIARS in the free world.
Fortunately some of us have a large collection of his strategically changing lies and he can be easily exposed for the fraud that he is.
The Clintons fooled a lot of people by going to church, carrying Bibles......was all an act.
Deception.....and dividing and rumor-mongering. We'll see a lot of that. Just wait and see.
I think that what the peoplemeant was Bush was someone with Morals and you could trust what he says and know he will follow through. And Kerry was a person without Morals and you could not trust what he says.
"The religionists will claim credit, as will the active military, the veterans, the patriots, the hard core republicans, the anti-elitists, the anti-Hollywood…
In reality it was many different people with many different reasons."
There are over 25 million veterans and I suspect the vast majority voted against the filthy traitor.
I believe the average mainstream american doesn't want our country to go the way of the Roman Empire and voted appropriately. The Sodomcrats are in trouble.
Interestingly, it's not religious against non-religious. It's religious liberals on the political left and religious conservatives on the right. The current issue dividing the two may be different, but the underlying core ideas are the same.
One difference in today's landscape is that Roman Catholics used to be Democrats, by and large. However, now the conservative RCs have been driven from the left (e.g. Gov. Casey in PA) over the abortion issue and now homosexual marriage.
The political left cannot connect with the "heartland" because the source of its core values is completely different from those it will try to chase.
The religious divide existed for a very long time, but it was over religious dogma.....who believed what.
Abortion, prayer in schools, same sex marriage, are unifying religious issues.
Looks like the more radical the Left got, the more united believers became.
Too bad Lefties.
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