Posted on 06/24/2007 1:18:27 PM PDT by wagglebee
C hurch attendance in New Hampshire is among the lowest in the country, which is why the invite from the Barack Obama campaign was unusual. At "faith forums" across the state last week, voters were asked to discuss how their faith should influence politics and public life.
Chuck Hotchkiss, a professor at Southern New Hampshire University, helped organize the forums and attended the first, in Portsmouth, not knowing what to expect. The crowd of 40 from seven faith traditions encouraged him.
So did their reaction.
"People came out of there really surprised and pleased at having the opportunity to have that kind of conversation, because that's not something you get to talk about much in everyday life," Hotchkiss said.
That may change in this presidential election.
Talk of religion and politics has long been the domain of the conservative right, especially around hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage. According to exit polls, 40 percent of the electorate go to church at least once a week and tend to vote Republican. In the 2004 election, of the 26 percent of voters who attended weekly services, 60 percent voted for President Bush, 40 percent for John Kerry, according to the Washington Post. Among those who attended church more frequently, 65 percent supported Bush and 35 percent Kerry.
The split is called the "God gap" in political circles, and Democrats are trying to close it.
This month, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Obama appeared on CNN to answer questions about their faith. The campaigns have religious advisers, too. In recent months, the candidates have described their positions on immigration, poverty and the rebuilding of New Orleans as expressions of faith. Like the Obama campaign, the Clinton team is organizing voters around faith issues in each state and intend to host listening sessions where "faith surrogates" can spread Clinton's message across the country.
"Faith and politics," said David Lamarre-Vincent, executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches. "As the right got it right, the left finally figured it out."
Lamarre-Vincent was contacted by the Clinton campaign last week about the priorities of New Hampshire's churchgoers. The campaigns are more interested than ever, and Lamarre-Vincent isn't complaining.
The council is in the midst of a two-year effort aimed at poverty, peace and the environment. To that end, clergy and lay leaders are encouraging members of congregations and parishes to question candidates thoroughly on those issues and to share their own beliefs.
"Whether it's creation stories leading to the protection of the environment or teachings in the Old and New Testaments, where the poor are mentioned thousands of times," Lamarre-Vincent said. "We've encouraged people to become fully engaged in the public square . . . and let (candidates) know these issues are important to them as people of faith."
Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, has watched elections closely for years. He's not convinced the religious references will resonate as well here as they would, say, in the South. But that doesn't mean there won't be a payoff for Democratic candidates, he said.
"Being able to talk about faith gives voters insight into the character of a person," Scala said. "Particularly in a primary, where there isn't that much of a difference on the issues, faith provides a window."
Adam Taylor, director of campaigns and organizing for Sojourners, a Christian organization focused on spiritual renewal and social justice, said there's a significant shift this election that's made it easier for the Democrats to claim some religious ground. This time around, he said, the leading Democratic candidates are much better at talking about faith than the leading Republicans.
Clinton has said prayer gave her the strength to endure her husband's infidelity. She talks of immigration as a moral issue. Edwards admitted on CNN to straying from his faith for a time but relying on it when his son died and his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Edwards has said his work around poverty, for example, is a direct expression of faith.
Obama discovered the church after college, when he took a job organizing impoverished communities in Chicago. Whether he's discussing war, veteran benefits or poverty, Obama returns to the same biblical passage: "I am my brother's keeper."
The leading Republican presidential contenders, meanwhile, are struggling on the faith front, Taylor said. Rudy Giuliani is a twice-divorced, pro-choice Catholic. Sen. John McCain angered the religious right during the 2000 presidential election, Taylor said, and has never been vocal about his faith.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney seems the most comfortable discussing his faith, Taylor said, but his Mormonism may unsettle many Americans.
"There are a lot of voters out there who can be reached around faith," Taylor said. "And there is a growing recognition in the Democratic Party that they can no longer be hostile to people of faith. (For those faith voters) there is not a sole litmus test, but they do care about how candidates approach life morally."
That has been the message at the Obama faith forums, Hotchkiss said. The idea, he said, isn't to line up voters behind a single position on universal health care, for example, but to encourage them to seek common ground and build relationships that allow for listening and compromising.
The Rev. Dr. Leanne Tigert, a pastoral counselor, ordained minister, theological teacher and member of South Church in Concord, is thrilled to be having these conversations in New Hampshire. The Obama campaign asked Tigert to be involved after hearing her testify in favor of civil unions at the State House, and she accepted in part because she saw Obama as a candidate of hope and inspiration.
"My agenda is not to convert people to my faith," Tigert said. "My agenda is to live out my faith caring for my neighbors, who might be across the street or across the world in Iraq."
Obama's faith forums have left Tigert excited about politics for the first time in years. "For the last 15 years, if you said Christian and religion, people thought you meant my way or the highway," Tigert said. "Our version is, 'Your faith is as significant at mine.' Let's bring out faith to the table for the mission of justice."
Well, yeah, how else will poor children be able to eat or go to school? If the world ran how you want it to, old people would have to have the indignity of working at Wal-Mart or McDonalds to buy their Viagra and couldn't afford to go on cruises with it, women would be raped by people like you and then told to go exercise their rights in an alley with a clotheshanger, black people would be sold into slavery. You mean, racist, bigoted, misogynist.
Yeah, that's sarcasm, but I've heard similar things from leftists.
fatih-based when all they’ve done these yrs is destroy anything linked with the word God? right.
But Sean Hannity has proclaimed that Rudy, McCain, and Romney are THE THREE who are the only choices that we who are outside the media-government-coven have.
Marxism is a religion, backed up by faith large enough to move a few mountains.
When ever tried, it fails miserably, and those who lose faith are punished, as being unworthy of the heaven on earth that will surely result the next time we sacrifice the hard working to the whims lazy...
Run Fred! Run!
I think a .38 Special is the best medicine to prevent rape.
The absurd claim that the Right had a monopoly on religion and politics and the Left is now sweetly seeking to learn how to meld the two could only be made by clueless MSMers. The Left was merging politics and religion for decades. The early generations of Fundamentalists and Evangelicals were a-political (in part because they believed the world was coming to an end any day now) and thus it was real news when conservative Protestants (Falwell) in the late 1970s got energed to the political activism the Left had been doing for generations.
What this article represents is Obama’s talking points, which this paper, ignorant of history, obligingly transmits for him.
Should read “got energized” in my preceding post.
“But Sean Hannity has proclaimed that Rudy, McCain, and Romney are THE THREE who are the only choices that we who are outside the media-government-coven have.”
Let’s refuse them all, vigorously, loudly, and to whatever degree is required.
Perhaps in your warlike, fundie, inflexible, patriarchal, Eurocentric, and misogynist moral paradigm.
Remember, violence only begets more violence.
In other words, their version of religion is the same as Satan's version, a false mockery of true Christianity..
God doesn't compromise with evil, those who claim to follow Jesus Christ and reject the authority and the teachings of His inspired Word are either deceived, weak, skin-deep, nominal "Christians" or conscious agents of the spiritual entity and enemy of God and our souls called Satan in holy scripture.
Anyone who claims to be a believer in Jesus Christ but supports legalized abortion or homosexual marriage disguised as "civil unions" is either lying to deceive others like them into joining them in their perfidy, or has him/her self been deceived by Satan's own lies. Either way they are a danger to our nation and not to be given any aid or support by believing Christians because of something as trivial and irrelevant in God's eyes as loyalty to a political party or to a politician. Jesus said that it would be better for a man to be cast into the sea with a millstone around his neck than to offend "one of these little ones", speaking of the young children who he held in his arms. Those "Christians" who support abortion with their vote or give aid to politicians who cynically support and protect legalized abortion for their own political benefit will eventually learn to their eternal sorrow that Jesus was not just making idle conversation with that statement.
I submit that violence in the form of a .38 special into the groin of the violent is calculated to prevent his begat of anything.
If violence is answered with more violence than can be tolerated by the violent, then the meek will inherit the earth!
What are you some sort of Neanderthal? I bet you want your wife(domestic slave) chained up in the house, too, right?
Argue with these people on Theological grounds. Chance are they don’t know what you are talking about, have a weak faith, or don’t have truely traditional Christian beliefs!! If they do then ask why their faith isn’t bearing out fruit, or would support someone whom believes directly opposite what they say..
My bet, if I was a betting person, and I'm not, would be that government's elected Democrats are nonbelievers at an even lower percentage rate than Democrats in general and at a much lower rate than government Republicans/Conservatives.
If they go around spouting that they have "religious" beliefs, don't believe it. Like Hillary is trying to do, saying her "faith" pulled her though Bill's indiscretions. Hogwash. Faith in what. She didn't say, did she. And why is she just now getting around to voicing it. One must have ears to hear to get it.
One who lies just doesn't realize they can't do both, lie and believe and accept Jesus as their Savior. They can say they do but that is a lot different than doing it. There's a price for that. The wages of unrepentant sin are death.
One who doesn't follow Jesus Christ, follows that old devil, Satan, the prince of this world - for now.
Did these seven faith traditions include paganism and satanism as well? I'm sure nature worshippers would have a lot of great ideas on how to fight global warming.
My wives are as free as they are supposed to be.
Wait..What.. what does your *tag really mean*??
..just curious..
So very very true. It’s their MO. Has been forever I think. Just gets worse as they improve at deceit and write laws to back them up. Oh those wicked laws. Whenever your freedom is compromised, trace it to a Democrat(s).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.