[voletti]

[Obadiah]

Yet nowadays the president, the secretary of state and the House speaker accept the evangelical label.
As does the Senate Majority leader, and many others.

[AzaleaCity5691]

To compare traditional Catholics with Evangelical Protestants is somewhat asinine.

Many practices that traditional Catholics believe are O.K are regarded my the majority of Evangelicals as "Evil, Sinful, etc"

Evangelical Protestants have a much larger breadth of specific "faith-based" issue than do Catholics, traditional or otherwise

[Luke]

Wonderful news!

Now... if we could only do away with all those church 'legalisms'.

[My2Cents]

The religious right also represents more than just evangelicals. At the last election Mr Bush won the Catholic vote by snaring 72% of self-styled traditionalist Catholics. Private polls also suggest that he won significant numbers of Orthodox Jews. Rather than being split between the parties, religious people of all faiths are now pretty anchored in the Republican Party. A Zogby poll last November put the national figure for “religious traditionalists” at 29%, but they accounted for 58% of Republicans.

During the height of the Terri Schivo controversy this spring, secular conservatives were telling me, and other religious conservatives here on FR, that we were ruining the Republican Party, and that we should "take a hike." If we take a hike, the Republican Party is dead, or will be as dead as it was circa 1940. Republicans of religious convictions have had to bend quite a bit to accomodate the objectives of secular conservatives; they're going to need to learn to peacefully coexist with us, or there will be no conservative movement.

[PaulaB]

Born-again Christians are no longer rural hicks; they are richer and better educated than the average American.

About time someone figured this out.... and yes I am part of the 16m

Pray without ceasing I Thess 5:17

[Ulysse]

I partialy agree.
But in Europe you might distinguish France from others countries.The french government demanded to cancel the mention of the christian roots of our culture,civilization and society(Poland,UK,Italy,Austria...and former comunists countries are not on the same side!)

[Pyro7480]

BTTT

[SaveTheChief]

THIS week, for the fourth year in a row, President George Bush broke from affairs of state to address the Southern Baptist Convention.

The spin is dizzying. How many times did President Bush's predecessor break from "affairs of state" to have personal affairs in the oval office?

[Modernman]

placemarker

[Celtjew Libertarian]

It seems that the religious right cannot fail to win. Either the Democrats continue to get more secular, in which case middle America will continue to vote Republican, or they will embrace religion a little more fully, and then the religious right will get a little more of what it wants.

What horrible strategy. The Dems are not going to out-God the GOP and it's just going to further repel voters who aren't comfortable with the religious right, but vote Republican for other reasons, like myself.

If Dems shut up about religion in general, got serious about defending America from military and terrorist threats, and outflanked the GOP on spending (which they could, what with President Bush's budgets), they might pick up a slice of secular conservatives/libertarians....Not that will any time soon, what with 60s New Leftists in the leadership.... But maybe in 20-30 years....

[k2blader]

He promised the strict evangelical group, which has 16m members, that he would work hard to ban gay marriage and abortion, and that their “family values” were his values, too.

Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. President.

[2banana]

Hmmm, lets see...they work, vote, go to church, join the military and have children...now why wouldn't any politician want their vote...

[FreedomSurge]

Dean is going after a larger share of the white atheist vote. His actions make perfect sense when viewed from that point of reference.

[GSWarrior]

One doesn't have to be particularly religious to oppose gay marriage and abortion. The fundamentalist left just doesn't get it and they never will.

[RATkiller]

bookmark

[cookcounty]

"What has changed is, ..."

What's changed is.....the secularists. They once cared about the the medical fact that in a late-term abortion, a child, at a stage highly sensitive to pain, is put through a brutalising agony.

What's changed is......secularists have embarked on a campaign to radically redefine "family" and "marriage" so that they are evacuated of their previous, meileenia-old meaning.

That this writer wonders about such thinks demonstrates a complete ignorance of social (and religious) history.

[af_vet_rr]

He promised the strict evangelical group, which has 16m members, that he would work hard to ban gay marriage and abortion, and that their “family values” were his values, too.

If he really wants to work on marriage and family values, maybe we can all pull our heads out of the sand and drop the charade that gay marriage is destroying the institution of marriage and family values. Instead, let's focus on the real problem - divorce.

Even if all the gays that wanted to get married could get married, they would still be a fraction of the population compared to the number of heterosexuals who get divorced. Our instant-gratification culture (or whatever you want to call it) has led people to divorce in record numbers. It's almost as if people who stay married their whole lives are going to become some kind of anomaly.

If I've offended any of you that are divorced, I would apologize, but I just think that with so many people getting divorced (and not just once either), and with so many families being broken up over it, it's something that needs to be addressed, but that nobody wants to talk about.

[ArGee]

Why is the religious right as powerful as it is?

Hmmm. Religious Right is fighting to make sure you still have the right to mention G-d if you want to.

Atheistic Left is fighting to make sure you don't have the right to say homosexuality is sinful if you want to.

Does the term "backlash" come to mind?

Just out of curiosity, which group seems more dangerous - the one that wants to curb your rights or the one that wants to maintain them?

Shalom.

[free_life]

The story is about the American Christian right coming together as a powerful political force. And what do we get with this thread a bunch of "I know it all christians" that want to prove themselves right.

Brother! We have lost our right to be right. Only Christ is the truth. It does matters not one iota what church or denomination you belong to. You come to God thru Christ and that is what makes you His [a Christian].

Now can you all stop bickering long enough to work together to fight the good fight. The enemy and the left are not gonna stop till they get what they want.

[Paige]

The number of Christians voting for John Kerry is appalling!